


Fox

by Reverse_Omegaverse



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alternate Universe, F/F, Omegaverse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-28
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-10-19 18:08:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 51,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10645242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reverse_Omegaverse/pseuds/Reverse_Omegaverse
Summary: An omegaverse Horizon Zero Dawn AU.Born among the Nora, a matriarchal tribe that reveres her kind, Angela is cast out at birth for being motherless. At age 25, she enters the Proving, a tournament that, should she win, will grant her a boon from the matriarchs. She seeks to find out the truth about her mother, which not only takes her past the Nora’s Sacred Lands, but to the world that came before. She ventures forth, with Fareeha at her side.





	1. The Outcast and the Prisoner

**Author's Note:**

> We’re compelled to repeat: this is an OMEGAVERSE fic, and it's packaged with all the dynamics and problems omegaverse comes with, so if that’s not your thing and you read this anyway, that’s on you. Another thing is that our omegaverse is different. For one, only girls can be alphas and omegas, and in this universe, the Nora revere them and believe they came from foxes, so the alphas and omegas are instead called vixens and tods.
> 
> This brings us to the last but most important difference in our omegaverse. Our alphas don’t have penises, and they’re the ones who go into heat, during which they can trap an omega by clamping down on the omega. We did that because we want to keep the alpha/omega dynamics intact, and it seemed like an alpha thing to trap a partner. So, for easy reference:
> 
> Vixen (Alpha) = no penis; goes into heat; clamps during heat; very sexual, including with vixen sisters (thus an incest warning applies, but it doesn’t apply to any major characters so it wasn't tagged)
> 
> Tod (Omega) = has a penis; doesn’t knot; never makes sexual advances, only responds to it (unless the tod is unmated and smells a vixen in heat)
> 
> Oh, and this should go without saying, but: they’re all gay for each other. All of them, no exceptions.
> 
> Lastly, to be consistent with our other Overwatch omegaverse, foxes will have unique eye colors. Example: Angela has purple eyes, Fareeha has red eyes.

Ten-year-old Angela crouched low in the tall grass that matched the color of her hair, hiding from the Nora just fifty steps away. She touched the device on her temple, a web of blue light appearing and stretching over the fields into a wide dome. Through it, she saw the outlines of the raccoons, turkeys and rabbits skittering about, as well as the Nora in her sights, five in number, all women, calling out a single name.

“Fareeha!” one woman cried, her voice clear to Angela’s superb hearing. “Fareeha, where are you?”

“Come out this instant, Fareeha, before your mother learns of this!” another woman demanded, stalking to the bushes nearby and groaning when she only found a startled boar. “By All-Mother, this stubborn kit will be the death of us.”

“She couldn’t have gone far, keep looking!”

“Never again will I believe this kit when she claims to want a nap. I should have known. If it’s impossible to have a child take a nap in the middle of the day, what more a kit with boundless energy? What a fool I was!”

As the women went on talking and searching, Angela found another outline seventy-five steps away, this one smaller, kneeling next to a fox, the beast counterpart of her kind. Holstering her bow, she crept out of the grass, careful not to alert the women or her mark of her presence. When she drew near enough to see her mark - a kit like her -  with her own eyes, she saw that the kit was petting the beast.

“Hi,” Angela greeted in a soft voice after enough noise to announce her presence.

The kit turned to face her, and the fox hid behind the girl but didn’t flee outright. The kit stared at her, and she stared back, first noting the kit’s red eyes, and that the kit was younger than her.

“I’m sorry,” she sighed when the kit still hadn’t responded. “You don’t have to talk to me, I know it’s against the law,” she said when the kit noticed that her face bore no paint, a sign that she was an outcast. “This is a good place to hide, they won’t find you for a while.”

She turned to leave, and the kit suddenly spoke.

“Can you take me with you?”

Angela blinked, looking at the kit and wondering if she had imagined the words she heard. Her eyes fixed on the small, blue paw print under the kit's right eye, a mark indicating she was a fox and of the Nora tribe, both things denied to an outcast like Angela. 

“You’re speaking to me? I’m an outcast,” she said, giving the kit the chance to shun her as those of the tribe would. “You’ll get punished, like that boy Jesse.”

“You’re the one who saved Jesse?” the kit asked back, eyes widening. “He said you were really brave, and that he would have lost more than his arm if you hadn’t saved him from those striders.”

This time, it was Angela's eyes that widened.

“He lost his arm? I know he was hurt, but I thought he was going to be okay.”

“Not all of it, but my mama said they had to get rid of some of it, because the healers couldn’t fix all of his arm, it was too broken,” the girl said. “He’s okay now, just needs a lot of rest. What’s that? By your ear?”

“Oh,” Angela said, her hand going to her temple. “It’s a device I found in the Metal Ruins. I fell in there a couple of days ago. Reinhardt said the Nora would have wanted me to get rid of it, but I didn’t want to. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to help Jesse. It showed me where the machines would move, and where they were weak.”

“That’s amazing,” the kit whispered, crawling over to her to get a better look of the device. “Is that how you found me, too?”

“It is,” Angela confirmed, smiling. “You're a kit like me, but you smell different.”

“I’m a tod,” the kit said, sniffing her, “and you’re a vixen. There are other vixen kits like you in the tribe, but very few, and they’re already hunting with their mamas while I’m stuck in the village. I hate it. I wanna be a brave, but my mama says I have to stay there and learn to cook and do other boring things. And I think it’s stupid they made you an outcast when you were just a newborn. How could a newborn do something bad? And you’re not bad at all, you saved Jesse’s life. I think you’re better than the rest of the Nora.”

“And you want to come with me? You want to be an outcast like me?” Angela asked, and the kit nodded. “Why?”

“Because I don’t wanna be stuck inside the village my whole life,” the kit said, clenching her fists. “I wanna be free, like you.”

Angela frowned.

“You don’t want to be like me. You’ve heard what they say about me. I have no mother.”

The kit snorted.

“You can have mine.”

Angela giggled.

“I don’t think that’ll stop me from being an outcast,” she said, sitting down and urging the kit to the same. “My name is Angela. You must be Fareeha, I heard the women calling for you.”

“I still hear them doing it,” Fareeha muttered, scowling at the general direction of the women. “They talk so loud most of the time, makes my head hurt.”

“Reinhardt is loud, too,” Angela said, wincing at the memory. “He’s trying to be quieter, but he just can’t help himself sometimes.”

“Try punching him in the face,” Fareeha told her, looking completely serious. “My mama knew Reinhardt, and she said that she punched him in the face to shut him up whenever he was too loud.”

“I’d have to climb him first!” Angela exclaimed, giggling again.

Fareeha beamed.

“Or you can shoot him with an arrow! Are you good with it, your bow?”

“I’m still learning,” Angela admitted, smiling shyly. “Reinhardt is training me so I can win the Proving when I grow up. Actually, today’s lesson was how to be sneaky. I think I’m too good at it, I sneak out all the time already, and today, I got away from him again. That’s how I ended up here with you.”

“Wow,” Fareeha murmured, crawling over to her, the cautious fox following. “You’re gonna be a great brave if you’re already this good.”

“Thank you,” Angela whispered, smiling more. “Is she yours?” she asked, looking at the fox.

“No,” Fareeha said, shaking her head, “I just met her today. I think she has a mate, and I was gonna wait here with her.”

Angela held out her hand, beckoning the fox over. The fox sniffed her once, and then approached her without hesitation.

“She knows you’re a vixen,” Fareeha remarked, smiling, “like her.”

“That’s so amazing,” Angela said as she began to pet the fox. “Do you ever wonder why foxes like us so much? Reindhardt told me it’s because we came from foxes, and that’s why we’re called foxes, too, but I think it’s because we smell different.”

“That makes sense,” Fareeha agreed, surprising her. “It makes more sense than the stories the matriarchs tell.”

“You think so?” Angela asked, scooting closer to Fareeha. “Reinhardt also told me there’s not a lot of tods in the tribe. I never thought I’d actually meet one before I entered the Proving.”

Fareeha looked down, glaring at the ground.

“I’m the only tod in the Nora now. My papa was a brave, and she died fighting a machine, died protecting a whole village by herself. It’s why my mama doesn’t want me to be a brave. I want to train like you, Angela. Can I go with you? Will Reinhardt train me? Then I’ll enter the Proving, too, and we can both be braves.”

Angela shook her head.

“I don’t want to just enter the Proving, Fareeha, I want to win it, because when I win, the matriarchs have to give me a boon. They know something about my mother, and when I win, they’re going to tell me everything. They’re going to tell me why I was cast out just because I was born.”

Fareeha frowned, almost pouting.

“So, you won’t take me with you?”

“I want to,” Angela said, holding Fareeha’s hand. “You’re the only one who doesn’t look at me like I’m some kind of monster. I think it’d be great if you come to live and train with me, but I also think you shouldn’t run away from your mother, Fareeha. I know she’s being unfair, but she cares about you, she loves you. You can talk to her, and you don’t even need to win the Proving to do it.”

“I…” Fareeha trailed off, looking away. “I didn’t think of it that way. I’m sorry, Angela.”

Angela smiled, even more when Fareeha squeezed her hand.

“I’m gonna be a brave, and you’re gonna win the Proving,” Fareeha declared, hugging her all of a sudden, and then, to her further surprise, began to purr. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Angela whispered, hugging Fareeha back and responding with a purr of her own.

* * *

Angela had barely set foot into the house when Reinhardt’s booming voice greeted her.

“Ah, there’s my wayward little kit!” he exclaimed, stepping into view. “How gracious of her to finally come home after worrying me all day.”

At first glance, Reinhardt cut an intimidating sight. Towering and broad, the boar skin draped on his shoulders spanned three pelts wide. Over the usual leather and fur customary of the Nora tribe, he sported large metal plates repurposed from snapmaws, both as protection and as trophies. His spear, nearly thick as a tree, he held in one hand with no effort, and his hair, stark white, an unruly mess like his beard. A large scar on his left eye was the most telling mark of the battles and hunts he had seen and won.

His eyes, however, when they beheld Angela, were alight with mirth and a tenderness that melted away his frightening visage.

“Well?” he prompted with a chuckle. “Are you going to tell me where you ran off to this time, kit?”

“You’re not mad?” Angela asked, shuffling her feet.

Reinhardt chuckled.

“You are a curious kit, Angela, your inquisitiveness matched only by your determination,” he said, setting his spear aside and approaching her. “What a force you’ll be when you grow up, who am I to hinder it? I see that now, I understand it. I’m to nurture you, after all. It is not with force but with hope, that I hope you come to accept the ways of our tribe someday. Now, where is it you went today? Not back to the ruins, I hope. You may not care that they are forbidden, but they can be dangerous.”

Angela shook her head, gently touching the device.

“I was heeding today’s lesson, actually.”

“Oh?” he asked, sitting down. “What did you stalk? Machine, beast, both?”

“I… went to the village, to Mother's Cradle,” Angela said, fiddling with her bow. “I wanted to see how close I could get before I got noticed.”

Reinhardt’s eyes widened a little, and then he belted out a laugh, so loud that Angela had to cover her ears.

“Human, then!” he boomed, laughing again but quickly stopping when he noticed her. “Oh, my girl, I’m so sorry,” he said, placing his large hands on her shoulders. “I’m struggling with this, controlling my voice for you, and I can’t stand how it pains you. Would you be terribly opposed to striking me whenever I fail to keep my voice down?”

Angela slowly dropped her hands, and then she began to giggle.

“I’m being serious, kit,” Reinhardt said, though he was smiling.

Angela nodded, still giggling.

“I know. Fareeha told me to punch you whenever you’re loud, because that’s what her mother did.”

“Fareeha?” Reinhardt echoed, surprised. “You spoke to her, and she spoke back? Were you caught at the village?”

“No,” Angela said, shaking her head. “These women were looking for her because she ran off. I found her, and we talked a little. She says it’s not fair I was made an outcast when I didn’t do anything bad, so she didn’t see why she shouldn’t talk to me. She told me her mother knew you.”

Reinhardt smiled.

“Ana, yes. She's a dear friend, to me and to you as well, kit. She’s the war-chief of the tribe, but she’s also one of the matriarchs. I take it by the look on your face that Fareeha did not tell you this.”

Angela shook her head.

“She didn’t. She told me about her dad, and she’s angry with her mother.”

“Ah,” Reinhardt murmured, his smile turning sad. “I heard of that. One of the rare times I wished I was not an outcast, because I wanted to badly to be there for my friend and her daughter in their time of sorrow. Ana has been especially protective of Fareeha after that, I imagine.”

“Fareeha wanted to come with me,” Angela said, “because her mother wouldn’t let her be a brave. I got her to go back to the village, it was the right thing to do, but… I kind of wish I can see her again.”

“You will,” Reinhardt promised, gently squeezing her shoulders. “Maybe not tomorrow, or the day after, maybe not even for a lot of years, but you will, when you go to the Proving. She’ll be there, I’m sure, as will her mother. You know, Ana is the matriarch who fought for you, would have had you raised with the tribe if she had her way, would have raised you herself, even. She not only blessed your naming, but had named you herself.”

“She didn’t fight hard enough for me?” Angela asked.

“Oh, my girl, short of being outcast herself, Ana did everything she could for you. She had to settle for a compromise, that I raise you here instead, else the other matriarchs would have had you exiled. She was the only thing standing between you and a cruel death, and to this day, though it doesn’t seem so, she continues to fight for you. You are a vixen, Angela, her kin, kin to all foxes. Have you noticed that, before Fareeha, you hadn’t encountered another fox? That is because they will not shun you, so they are kept away, in other Nora villages.”

Angela frowned.

“Will they take Fareeha away, too?”

“Even if they do, you will meet each other again,” Reinhardt assured her.

“I promised her that I’d win the Proving,” Angela said, “and she promised me she’ll be a brave.”

Reinhardt nodded.

“I believe in you both. I’ve never met Fareeha, but I knew her mother and her father, and I know she will make a fine brave. And, you, Angela, you will find the answers you seek, and it is my hope that you will also find your place in this world. Were Ana here, I have no doubt she’d wish you the same.”

“I will win,” Angela vowed, and Reinhardt laughed, softer this time, and drew her into his large arms. “Tell me more about Ana,” she said after a moment, “about her mate. How is it she’s the war-chief and also a matriarch? I thought only women can be matriarchs, and that they needed to have grandchildren.”

“She is something of an exception,” Reinhardt said, nodding. “You see, the Nora reveres foxes like you and her, and most especially tods like Fareeha. You foxes boast a prowess that would give even the mighty stormbirds pause. You are our best braves, our hunters, our protectors, and you don’t grow old, which means you don’t become weak and addled. Ana, she will forever look like a young woman, and while she does not have any grandchildren, she is greatly, dearly respected and valued by the Nora, both for the strength of her mind and her body, such that it saw her become the first vixen matriarch. It's an honor, the mantle she bears, but with it she also carries the greater weight of her words and actions, and thus why she could only do so much for you.”

“It would have been nice to raised in the village,” Angela murmured, resting her head on Reinhardt’s chest, “but it’s nice to know there’s someone else out there looking out for me.”

“You are not alone, Angela,” Reinhardt said. “I know it may seem so, but you are not alone. I will always be here for you, no matter how far you wander, or how long you have gone, I will be here, waiting for you to come home.”

Angela looked up.

“Can we train some more today?” she asked. “The stories can wait. I want to train.”

Reinhardt laughed, again managing to keep his voice down.

“Of course, kit. We are training to win the Proving, after all! Come, I made you a spear while I waited for you. Let’s see how it handles!”

“Okay!” Angela exclaimed, following Reinhardt outside.


	2. Fifteen Years Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick reference/reminder of our omegaverse:
> 
> Vixen (Alpha) = no penis; goes into heat; clamps during heat; very sexual, including to sisters (thus an incest warning applies, but it doesn’t apply to any major characters so it wasn't tagged)
> 
> Tod (Omega) = has a penis; doesn’t knot; never makes sexual advances, only responds to it (unless the tod is unmated and smells a vixen in heat)
> 
> Gay. Gay. Gay.

Twenty-five-year-old Angela sat on an overlook, afforded a breathtaking sight of the Embrace, the small pocket of the Nora’s Sacred Lands where she had been raised. Her gaze didn’t cast beyond the gates that closed off the Embrace from the rest of the Sacred Lands, fixed instead on Mother’s Heart, the village she would be stepping into today for the Proving.

The Proving, where she would be made a brave when she passed the trials and become one of the tribe, no longer an outcast. The Proving, which she would win and be granted a boon by the matriarchs, and she would finally have the answers to the questions she had been asking since she was a child.

_Why was I made an outcast?_

_Who is my mother?_

_Why didn’t she claim me?_

Sighing, Angela folded her legs, pulling them up to her chest as she curled into herself. Fifteen years she had spent preparing for the Proving, but not a second of it she spared to preparing herself for the answers she sought, to ensuring she could bear the harshness of the truth.

Shaking her head, she touched the device, prompting its interface to open. She navigated the display, having long learned the strange written language the device used. She had found that, in moments of distress and unease, losing herself in this small piece of the ancient world proved to be an effective distraction.

Bringing up images of her spear and her bows, she gave her weapons a thorough look, seeing if she could apply more modifications or improvements before the Proving. She favored bows, so much that she had two, a hunter bow and a longshot bow, but she was no less skilled with her spear. Reinhardt had taught her to respect the power of the machines that they shared their world with, and to be ready to switch from ranged to melee at a moment’s notice.

Satisfied with the state of her weapons, Angela opened a new selection of images, these of the machines she had encountered in the Embrace, from the scouting watchers to the scavenging scrappers. Often at night, when she waited for sleep to come after a tiring day of training, she found herself asking a new set of questions.

_Where do the machines come from?_

_What is their purpose?_

_What do they have to do with the ancient world and its people, both now left in ruins?_

Angela closed the device’s interface, turning her gaze back to the Embrace, and, for the first time, looking beyond it, past the gates, and even past the Sacred Lands.

_Wouldn’t it be amazing to find out?_

* * *

Outside of Mother’s Heart, out of earshot from the guards at the gate, Reinhardt waited for her. Angela made her steps louder to alert him that she was approaching, and when he turned to face her, he grinned widely and opened his arms. Fifteen years ago, he would have bellowed a loud greeting, but he had finally learned to communicate beyond the sound of his voice, and Angela hadn’t once had to resort to violence to help him along.

Stepping into Reinhardt’s arms, Angela let the massive man draw her into a crushing hug that had her feet lifting off the ground. She laughed when he spun with her once, indulging him in what may be the last hug they’d ever share. Tomorrow, after the Proving, she would be one of the tribe, while Reinhardt would remain an outcast. The sobering thought had her throwing her arms around his neck.

“Don’t be having doubts now, kit,” Reinhardt said, always seeming to know what was on her mind. “I want this for you, to be part of the tribe as you should have been from the moment you were born. If not among the Nora, you will find your kin in there, and they have been waiting for you just as long.”

“They’re waiting for me?” Angela murmured, looking over Reinhardt’s shoulder to the closed gates. “Ana?” she asked, facing him just as he nodded. “Fareeha?” she said after a moment, recalling the tod she had not seen again after the day they met.

Reinhardt laughed, a soft chuckle that didn’t hurt her sensitive hearing.

“I am sure,” he declared, his face splitting into a grin. “Now go, be with your kin, and though I know they have done nothing to deserve it, please give the rest of the Nora a chance.”

“They’re not helping themselves if I’m not allowed to speak to you ever again when I win,” she said, watching the guards who raised their weapons when they noticed that she was looking at them.

Reinhardt put her down, blocking her view of the guards.

“Without laws and faith, the Nora will be lost, like the ancient ones who came before,” he told her.

“I know,” she sighed, having heard the speech from Reinhardt many times over the years. “I understand, Reinhardt,” she said, “I just don’t agree with it. Why not change your laws when it condemns someone innocent? Why not reflect on your faith if it has you casting out a newborn into the wilds?”

“It’s not up to us to change these,” Reinhardt said, placing his hands on her shoulders.

“If not us, then who?” Angela asked, and then sighed, shaking her head. “Never mind, Reinhardt. I don’t want an argument to be our last exchange.”

Reinhardt smiled and nodded.

“Nor do I, kit.”

Angela smiled back.

“I haven’t been a kit in four years, Reinhardt.”

“In body, yes,” he agreed, chuckling, “but you will always be my little kit.”

“And you will always be my father,” she told him, placing her hands over his, “no matter what the matriarchs tell me, no matter the truth, you are my father, Reinhardt.”

With a quivering lip, Reinhardt drew her back into another embrace, and Angela let him hold her until he was ready to let go. When he did, they said their goodbyes, and Angela headed to the gates of Mother’s Heart alone, Reinhardt watching her back as he always had.

* * *

Angela strode to the gates of Mother’s Heart, gripping her spear tight when the guards began to advance on her. She was about to speak, preferring not to fight, but before she could say a word, the massive doors swung open with such force that it sent both guards sailing past her.

Dropping her spear, Angela checked on the guards, asking, “Are you okay?” as one got to his feet.

“Don’t touch me, outcast!” he spat, shrugging her hand off his arm.

“You are not welcome here,” said the other guard, and he seemed like he had more to say, but he bit his tongue when he saw who had opened the gates.

Standing by the opened doors, a tall woman - not a woman, Angela corrected herself when she caught the scent of a vixen - a vixen observed the scene with interest, her bright, gold eyes on Angela. While the vixen didn’t have Reinhardt’s stature or size, she appeared no less intimidating. Her tall frame was lithe, similar to Angela’s, but her skin bore many scars, like Reinhardt’s. Her black hair was long and left loose over her shoulders like a magnificent mane, and at the upper left of her left brow was the mark of a fox, a small paw print drawn in blue paint. She held no bow or spear, but by her stance and the flash of her sharp teeth, it was evident she wasn’t without weapons.

“W-War-Chief,” one guard stuttered.

“Matriarch!” the other guard exclaimed, both of them getting to their feet in a hurry.

“Ana?” Angela asked, and the guards gasped at her like she had desecrated the All-Mother.

Ana turned to her, showing no surprise and instead smirking in approval.

“Angela,” the war-chief greeted, beckoning her over. “Pay no mind to these fools, they’re not worth your concern. Come here and let me have a look at you.”

Glancing one last time at the now cowering guards, Angela picked up her spear and approached Ana, whose eternally youthful face made them appear as peers, but the war-chief’s eyes held years and experience that revealed her true age.

Ana held her face in both hands, taking a long moment to simply look at her before finally speaking.

“Seems you’ve grown well, Angela,” the war-chief remarked, and Angela wondered if that was praise she just heard in Ana’s stern voice. “It’s good to know that Reinhardt took good care of you.”

“He did,” Angela affirmed, glancing back in hopes that Reinhardt still stood there, but he was gone.

“He moves surprisingly fast for a man his size,” Ana said knowingly, her smirk turning into a smile. “Now, enough dallying. Follow. The noise will be overbearing, but if you’ve lived your life with Reinhardt, it shouldn’t be anything you can’t handle.”

“He’s actually learned to control his voice,” Angela said as she began to follow Ana inside.

“Did you punch him?” Ana asked, laughing.

“No,” Angela answered, finding the war-chief’s laugh infectious, even more when Ana laughed again.

“Shame.”

Following Ana, Angela noticed that the crowd parted for them, out of reverence for Ana, and for her, either curiosity or contempt, followed by whispers and gossips she heard clearly. At the back of the crowd, she saw a few Nora who kept their distance.

Foxes, she realized, seeing nothing but a welcoming warmth in their eyes as they met her gaze. All vixens, she noted by their scents, much stronger than Ana’s, whose own scent was more muted, given that she was mated and her mate had long died. She turned to Ana, who smirked at her.

“You’ll see my stubborn tod of a spawn soon enough, Angela, don’t you worry,” Ana teased as they continued to walk a path that continually opened up for them. “Fareeha isn’t the only one who has been waiting for you. I would have raised you myself if I had my way, but, sadly, I’m not the only matriarch, and I’m more war-chief than I am matriarch. That said, it doesn’t spare me from coddling the Carjan envoys we’ve invited today, so I’m afraid I must leave you soon.”

“I’ll be okay---” Angela started to say, but Ana grabbed her arm and dragged her to one of the many merchant stalls.

“He’s not Fareeha, but I’m sure he’ll make passable company until the lantern ceremony,” Ana said, nodding at the merchant, who snickered.

“You wound me with your words, War-Chief,” he quipped, and then flashed a smile. “Hello, Angela. I believe I’m fifteen years late with thanking you for saving my life.”

“Jesse?” Angela asked, and she looked down, seeing that his left arm was cut off from the elbow down.

“Seems you’re in good enough hands---” Ana paused, catching herself and smirking. “Hand,” she corrected, making Jesse groan. “I’ll see you at the ceremony, Angela.”

“If she is the voice of All-Mother, then All-Mother has a terrible sense of humor,” Jesse joked once Ana could no longer hear him, which took some waiting. “Hey, it’s fine,” he said when he noticed that she was frowning. “So I lost my forearm. It’s a lot better than losing my life, and it's not even my whole arm. And that’s thanks to you. I’ve had fifteen years to get used to it, even the war-chief’s terrible wordplay.”

“I was worried when Fareeha told me about your arm,” Angela said, lifting her gaze back to Jesse’s face. “I would have come to see you, if I could.”

“Fareeha told me,” Jesse said, smiling, “it was sweet of you to worry about me, Angela. I really am fine, though. Here, want to have a look at my shop? I’ve got weapons, outfits, you name it.”

“I don’t really have much for trade,” Angela admitted, hands seeking her longshot bow, “and I’m very happy with my weapons and outfit. I made them myself.”

“Did you, really?” Jesse asked, nothing but sincere. “That’s very fine stitchwork on the leather, Angela, and I think the white color suits you very well. Shame how badly that’d stain with blood or machine wastes, though. I see you’ve personally modified your bows and your spear, too. You’re something of a craftswoman… craftsfox… craftsvixen--- you’re quite the crafty fox, aren’t you?”

Angela laughed, unable to muster any other response.

“Crafty fox, let’s go with that,” he decided, snapping his fingers in delight. “Really, though, I may not have a hand - heh - for craft, but I’ve definitely got an eye for quality. I’d throw shards and machine parts your way if you modify my stock, but we’re not here for business. I’ll be rooting for you in the Proving, Angela. You’ll win, I know it.”

“Thank you, Jesse,” Angela said playfully, “but I think you’re biased.”

“Doesn’t make me wrong,” he teased back, winking at her. “I heard I’m not the only Nora you’ve helped out. If you ask me, that’s as good a proof as any that you deserve to be part of the tribe, but you know how it is with tradition.”

Angela nodded, but her attention was elsewhere, directed to a pair of vixens making their way over. Twins, she easily deduced by their identical, striking features, their brown hair styled similarly and fox marks above their left brows like Ana.

“Angela,” one greeted as they approached.

“Jesse,” the other vixen said, looking at him expectantly. “How is it the war-chief leaves Angela to you and not one of us?”

“Well, don’t blame me for being charming,” Jesse joked, snickering. “Angela, allow me to introduce you to Lase and Qira.”

“What pretty hair,” Lase murmured, reaching out and touching her hair. The mere brush of skin sparked an electric tingle that warmed Angela to her core.

“And your eyes,” Qira added, stepping closer to touch her side and fondle her through the thin leathers. "What a lovely color. I've always liked purple."

Like Ana, the twins had a presence, but it was their scent, strong and magnetic, a merge of inviting and challenging that left Angela in a daze.

“This is why Ana left her to me,” Jesse said, pulling her away from the pair, out of their tantalizing reach, “because, clearly, you two can’t behave. Angela’s not used to being around other foxes, look what you’re doing to her!”

“Then we should help her get comfortable,” Lase offered, stunning eyes boring into her as the vixen took another step forward.

“It’s only right,” Qira seconded, also taking a step closer. Teal eyes roved over her body, openly ogling her. The vixen licked her lip seductively and another jolt went through Angela at the sight of that wet little tongue. “After all, she’ll be part of the tribe after tomorrow.”

“Angela!” came a voice from the crowd.

“Oh, thank the All-Mother...” Jesse began to say, and then trailed off when he seemed to recognize the voice. “Oh, no.”

“Oh, no?” Angela absently echoed, still staring at the twins.

“Angela!”

Angela had barely turned to the sound of the voice when she was swept off her feet, strong arms fastened around her waist as she was flushed against a long, lean and solid body. She looked down, finding familiar, happy red eyes staring back at her.

“Fareeha?” she whispered, touching the beautiful face in front of her.

“Hi,” Fareeha said, grinning when Angela caressed her cheeks.

“Hi,” Angela whispered back, her thumb tracing the fox mark under Fareeha's right eye.

Being a fox, the first thing that she fixated on was Fareeha’s scent. While the twins had drawn her and filled her with a thrill similar to what she felt when she picked apart the machines she had hunted, Fareeha smelled much different, provoking a primal, possessive urge in her that demanded she claim the mature, unmated tod holding her.

What a fine claim she’d be, came a thought unbidden, as her eyes drank in the sight of a healthy tod. Fareeha had grown, that much was obvious, and Angela could tell, even with Fareeha holding her, that the tod easily towered over her, maybe even over Ana. Through the leathers, she could feel Fareeha’s taut muscles, and she decided to indulge herself, moving her hands to Fareeha’s broad shoulders.

“Better put her down before she devours you, Fareeha,” came Jesse’s voice, sounding so far away despite him standing right next to them.

“Not that it would such a terrible thing,” Qira quipped, laughing when Jesse scolded her.

“Not when Fareeha seems willing to oblige,” Lase said, “and especially if Angela will share.”

Angela forgot what the twins said after they spoke, too captivated by the sound and feel of Fareeha’s powerful purring. Fareeha was happy, the purr meant, very happy, by how loud and strong it was, and it was because of her.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Fareeha said, still holding her up as Angela stroked the smooth, muscled skin of her shoulders.

“I’m glad to see you, too,” Angela said as Fareeha finally placed her back down on two feet again. She instantly missed the warmth of those strong arms around her and refused to step back because of it. Standing flush against Fareeha, Angela lifted her eyes from the full-bodied chest before her and stared into those smiling red eyes. The urge to take this mighty, healthy tod moved her, it had gripped Angela so powerfully. “You became a brave…” she observed from the mark on Fareeha’s armor, though was barely aware of the words, the tod was so distracting.

Fareeha beamed and the purr grew even louder, vibrating throughout Angela’s body.

“I did,” she said, clearly proud and happy to receive Angela’s attention for it, “and you’re going to win the Proving tomorrow.”

A warm hand touched the back of her shoulder, and it was stimulating, but it wasn’t Fareeha, whose hands were on her sides.

“And live among your kin, where you belong, embrace your nature,” Lase said, appearing at her side, green eyes alight with excitement.  
  
“With our help, and Fareeha’s, here’s hoping,” Qira added, appearing at her other side, eyeing Fareeha and licking her lips again.

Fareeha’s eyes darkened and she hugged her once more, which Angela didn’t mind at all. The soothing purr turned into a rumble, and the tod almost growled, “We’ll be on our way.”

“Fareeha,” Lase chastised with a fair hint of disapproval.

“Stay,” Qira asked, slightly less demanding, but clearly disappointed.

Fareeha wrapped an arm around Angela’s shoulders, and then started to walk away with her.

“She’ll see you at the lodge,” she said dismissively, and Lase growled a little in response.

“Lase,” Jesse reprimanded, and then suffered the heat of a vixen’s glare for it.

Angela watched over her shoulder, troubled, but not terribly disturbed because the warmth and comfort of Fareeha’s strong arm was very distracting.

“They just want to fuck you and claim me,” Fareeha said harshly, turning Angela’s eyes back to that pretty face, which had set into a scowl.

On instinct, Angela reached up and touched Fareeha’s cheek, stroking it until those red eyes lightened, turning towards her instead. Her fingers strayed higher, to Fareeha’s hair, and Angela realized with great surprised that she was disappointed that Fareeha’s hair was so short.

Fareeha, seeming to notice her reaction, cracked a smile.

“Vixens hate short hair,” the tod said, “it’s why I keep it like that. To remind them, in a way. I won my Proving, Angela, and for my boon, I asked the matriarchs to give me something I’ve never had: choice. To let me choose to be a brave, to let me choose to decline a vixen who wants me in her bed, to let me choose when to have kits of my own.”

“To choose the kind of life you want,” Angela said as understanding dawned on her, “instead of the one already planned for you before you were barely born.”

“Yes,” Fareeha confirmed, features lightening a little more as she shared with Angela. Those kissable lips suddenly turned up in a broad, beautiful smile. “The matriarchs had no choice but to grant me what I’d asked. You should have seen the look on their faces.”

“Fareeha,” Angela chided, but giggled at how very proud of it the tod was. “I’m happy for you, though,” she said, smiling. “You became a brave, like you’ve always wanted.”

“Much to Mama’s dismay, yes,” Fareeha confirmed, grinning. ”I’ve held up my end of the deal, now it’s your turn. You’ll get your answers, Angela. It won’t make up for what the tribe and your mother did to you, but you’ll finally know why.”

Angela leaned on the tod’s warm body, inhaling the scent that both calmed and aroused her, filling her with a pleasant, warm sensation that sent her thoughts back to the immediate reaction she’d had around Fareeha.

She had wanted to claim her, Angela remembered, and still did. There was something so very satisfying about the notion, it was shameful. Fareeha was a brave first and a tod second, having earned it all the hard way, yet as soon as she’d seen her, Angela had had the same inclination as those other vixens. She had even wanted to be with them first, remembering how captivating the brush of their skin was.

Growing up alone without other foxes around, Angela’s only preparation for the moment of meeting them had been Reinhardt’s warnings about how it might make her feel. His words had been accurate to a startling degree, but that still hadn’t prepared her for how severely Fareeha’s presence was affecting her. Even now, her thoughts drifted to the enticing prospect of having Fareeha beneath her.

“Fareeha, I must apologize,” Angela said, withdrawing a bit because she didn’t deserve that kind of cuddling warmth.

“Why’s that?” Fareeha asked, glancing down at her curiously.

“When I first saw you, I wanted the same thing those other vixens did. I still do,” Angela confessed, lowering her eyes. “I wanted to take you.”

“Oh,” Fareeha said, but those pretty features didn’t harden like they had when the other vixens had made advances. “It’s okay, Angela,” the tod forgave in a surprisingly easy manner. “You like me, don't you? You like how I smell? It’d have been worrying if you do and didn't want me like that,” she said, and then upon seeing the surprised look on Angela’s face, added, “I’m not upset with you for that. I’m not even upset with Qira and Lase, not really,” she admitted quietly, glancing back over a shoulder at the vixens they had left behind.

“No?” Angela asked, surprised.

“No,” Fareeha said. “I’m still the only tod in the tribe. None have been born from women the last fifteen years, so I know what the vixens are expecting of me. They’ve even made it clear that I don’t have to be a part of any of my kits’ lives if that’s what I wanted, so long as I gave them kits, but I could never do that. I had barely known my own father when I lost her, and it hurts to this day. I can’t even imagine how much it hurts Mama. To ask me not to be a father to my own kits? I can’t, and I won’t, and so I refuse to have kits at all until I’m ready to be a father.”

Fareeha’s words were blunt and honest, and the maturity Angela saw in this tod warmed her through and through.

“I’m still sorry,” she apologized. “I’ll try to control myself around you more, but it may take some time. You smell very, very good, Fareeha.”

Fareeha grinned and it did nothing to help the problem Angela was having.

“You smell wonderful, too, Angela.”

“Stop before I kiss you,” Angela begged, and Fareeha laughed.

“I wouldn’t mind it from you,” she said, flashing that smile that inappropriately warmed Angela.

“Really,” Angela replied, giggling as she curled against Fareeha’s body once more, “stop. You’re wonderful.”

Fareeha purred, and Angela leaned into the tod’s muscled body, savoring the sensation of being held like this by a friendly, wonderful friend. It took a few seconds for her to realize that they were still moving, and when she did, she glanced along the path they traveled.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To see the rest of the festival,” Fareeha answered, smiling more. “Unless you want to go back to Jesse?”

“No, I’d love to go around,” Angela said, taking Fareeha’s hand and letting the tod show her the rest of Mother’s Heart.

* * *

With her hand clasped tightly in Fareeha’s, Angela walked beside the tod through Mother’s Heart, comfortably cuddled to Fareeha’s side.

“And the lodge is up there,” Fareeha finished telling her, gesturing to a large, sturdy hunter’s cabin at the top of the hill. “You will bunk with the other vixens there tonight.”

“Where do you stay?” Angela asked, surmising that it probably wasn’t wise for Fareeha to sleep among a bunch of sex-hungry vixens.

“With Mama,” Fareeha answered, scowling. “Doesn't matter to her at all that I'm a brave, she doesn't think I can defend myself.”

Angela tugged Fareeha’s hand, smiling faintly.

“Come on, your mother’s not that bad.”

Fareeha snorted.

“You can still have her,” she said, reiterating the offer she had made fifteen years ago in the fields.

Angela giggled, resting her head against Fareeha’s arm and squeezing the tod’s hand.

Fareeha glanced down at the top of her head and smiled, and then lifted a hand to Angela’s device.

“You still have this,” she observed, touching the metal piece gently, which glowed blue at the contact. She withdrew, a little startled, red eyes moving to Angela’s face. “It still works?”

“Yes,” Angela confirmed, lifting her hand to touch Fareeha’s shy fingers and clasp them. “I use it to hunt, among other things.”

Fareeha’s warm eyes flicked to it and lingered.

“Machines and animals?” she asked, and Angela nodded. “You said you saw me with it, too, years ago…”

“Do the Nora still forbid the use of anything from the Metal World?” Angela asked.

“They do,” Fareeha confirmed, eyes lingering for one last moment before returning to her face, “but that device sounds useful. Imagine going to war with the advantages it affords. ”

“It’s served me well,” Angela vouched, and Fareeha nodded, seeming to understand. The response made her wonder and start to worry a little. “Will the Nora make me get rid of it once I win the Proving?” she asked.

To her surprise, Fareeha smirked at the concern.

“Ask for it as part of your boon,” the tod advised, and Angela smiled in sudden understanding.

“I have a feeling the tribe isn’t aware of how clever you are,” she said, and it had Fareeha beaming.

They strolled up a hill, passing a couple of loud bonfires where braves gathered to warm themselves and share stories, but passed them by because of the noise. Everywhere they walked was rather loud, Angela noticed. She wasn’t used to this volume of people around her, and Reinhardt wasn’t ever nearly this loud anymore. It hurt her ears. She was about to ask Fareeha if they could find a quiet spot, but before she could, a matriarch caught her attention.

In a secluded area off to the side of the trail, a lone matriarch stood atop a small, wooden platform in front of a group of children sitting on tree stumps.

“What’s going on over there?” Angela asked, catching the ending words of a story about the Ancient Ones and the Metal World.

“That’s Matriarch Rasa,” Fareeha told her, “she tells stories to the children during the festival. We just caught the end about the All-Mother and Her faithful.”

“She’s speaking about vixens and tods now,” Angela picked up on through the commotion. “May we listen?”

“Of course,” Fareeha said, smiling, and steered them towards the gathering.

As they drew closer, a little blonde-haired girl straightened, nose lifting into the air to sniff curiously. She did so twice, and then turned on the stump.

“Fareeha!” she said, whirling and jumping up to launch herself off the stump at Angela’s companion.

Fareeha caught the kit as the little one's arms stretched to wrap around her body.

“Soeli,” Fareeha said with a laugh, looking more at ease than Angela had ever seen.

“Ahh,” Matriarch Rasa said, stopping the story to look up at her and Fareeha as they entered the storyteller’s ring, “and here’s a pair of our guardian foxes now, children. Fareeha, Angela, welcome.”

“She’s a vixen?” one of the little boys of the group asked, looking at Fareeha.

Soeli released Fareeha, dropping to the ground, only coming up to Fareeha’s knees, and rolled her eyes.

“No, dummy, she’s a vixen!” Soeli corrected, pointing to Angela, and then looked up at Fareeha with a big smile. “Fareeha’s a tod. Can’t you see where her mark is? It’s by her right eye, not the left!”

“Then why does she have a brave's mark?” the little boy asked.

“Because she is a brave!” Soeli answered, turning around and facing the little boy in challenge. “She’s the bravest warrior we have! She saved my mama’s life all by herself! Against a whole horde of machines!”

Undeterred by Soeli’s conviction, or perhaps too dim-witted to notice the kit’s anger, the little boy pressed, “But I thought only vixens were braves and tods stayed home to take care of their kits."

Soeli’s cute little features twisted indignantly, and it looked as if she might jump at the little boy, but Matriarch Rasa interrupted before she could, and Fareeha calmed the kit by crouching to ruffle the little one’s hair.

“Fareeha is an exceptional tod,” Matriarch Rasa said, drawing the little boy’s attention back to her. “Tods are a rare and cherished miracle, and that is why they usually stay safe at home, but Fareeha has proven herself a worthy fighter, deserving of the choice to venture out,” the matriarch said, catching Fareeha’s eye. The corner of aged, wizened lips lifted, and she continued, “shall we continue our story of the origins of foxes now, children?”

“I know this story,” Soeli boasted proudly, only encouraged when Fareeha winked.

“But what about her, then?” the same little boy asked, turning in his seat to point at Angela. “If you’re a vixen, why aren't you dressed like a brave? And where's your fox mark?”

Fareeha stood, putting an arm around Angela’s side.

“Angela becomes a brave tomorrow,” she announced confidently with no hesitation.

“And then she’ll mate you?” Soeli asked, turning to face the both of them with an excited light in those blue eyes. “Is that why you don’t like the other vixens, Fareeha? Because you like Angela?”

“Angela’s a friend, Soeli,” Fareeha said, glancing at her with a small, private smile. “We met when we were kits---”

“I knew it!” Soeli cut in victoriously. “I knew there was a vixen you liked!” she declared, marching over to Angela authoritatively. “You and Fareeha gotta make kits soon, Angela! I want kit playmates!"

Angela blinked at Soeli, too taken by the idea of making kits Fareeha. Her mind had gone straight to that thought, and she struggled to focus elsewhere or formulate a satisfying reply for Soeli. She glanced at Fareeha, intending to plead for help with an answer, but her eyes didn’t make it past Fareeha’s chest. The tod had such a beautiful body, strong and muscled but still wonderfully feminine, it would be a shame not to admire it.

Angela’s eyes lowered down that lean, corded frame, able to see it even through Fareeha’s clothes. She would make such beautiful kits, no doubt. Angela’s stomach started to warm, sending pleasant flutters throughout her body, and then her eyes dropped even further and came to a halting stop at the slight, shapely bulge in Fareeha’s pants.

Was Fareeha aroused?

No, tods didn’t get aroused on their own, she vaguely remembered. Not unless she, a vixen, made her so, and she was very, very capable of doing that.

Angela lifted a hand to touch Fareeha and see how much more glorious that bulge could get, but before her fingers could even touch the handsome tod, a loud, excited voice broke through the fog around her mind.

“Ooh! Are you in heat, Angela? Are you gonna try making kits right now? Make two! No, three! Three at once, I want lots of playmates!”

Angela froze, becoming aware of the fact that there was a kit next to her and Fareeha, and then realized that they were still outside at the Proving festival in Mother’s Heart with people, children, and an amused, chuckling matriarch around.

In addition to that, Fareeha was looking at her, and Angela caught those red eyes drop down to her hand before raising again. She withdrew the limb as if it had caught on fire, but Fareeha’s warm eyes weren’t angry.

Fareeha leaned over, already close to her, and cuddled Angela, chuckling softly.

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

On stage, Matriarch Rasa laughed and stretched out a hand for the little one.

“Come now, Soeli, you must be patient.”

“I have been!” Soeli complained, grumbling, but followed the matriarch's request to sit back on the log. She turned to face Angela and gave her an excitable, encouraging grin.

“Now, who can tell me why the Nora were blessed with foxes?” the matriarch asked the children, and Soeli spun in her seat to answer.

“They were our reward!” she said. “For not turning our backs on All-Mother when the unfaithful wanted the machines from the Metal World to do all their work for them.”

“Correct,” Matriarch Rasa said, rewarding the kit with a smile. “When others were lured away by the promise of the Metal World, the Nora remained faithful. It is because of this loyalty that All-Mother gave us foxes to serve as our companions, eventually teaching the very first braves how to hunt and survive in the wild.”

Matriarch Rasa smiled at the children, dark eyes specifically finding Soeli.

“Humanity was slow to learn from the foxes,” she continued, “we could never quite match their speed, agility, or ferocity, but the foxes stayed by our side, dutifully protecting and teaching us. They sacrificed their lives for ours, and we will always remember, honor, and respect that. This bond between fox and human was recognized by All-Mother, and after years of companionship, She blessed the fallen foxes by blessing our women in turn. At rare, treasured times, women bear the foxes back into the world as the ones you children know now, like little Soeli here,” Matriarch Rasa explained, nodding to the little one among them. Soeli straightened proudly, and then Matriarch Rasa’s eyes lifted to Fareeha and Angela once more. “This gift from the All-Mother allows our guardians to fight alongside us with a prowess even greater than their beast selves, and now they can speak with us and speak for themselves, form bonds with us deeper than before. Today, they walk alongside us, the paragons of strength and cunning of our people, our blessed guardians, gifted straight from All-Mother. And that is why we revere them, children. They are Nora’s gift.”

Soeli sat up straight on the stump, looking proud. When she turned again, she flashed a smile that bared small, baby fangs still in development.

“And that’s why you should make kits!” she told Fareeha knowingly. “We’re a blessing! And you should spread blessings!”

“But she doesn’t look like she’s in her heat,” another little girl said, looking up at Angela curiously. “My mama said that foxes can’t make babies unless the vixen is in her heat.”

“So what? They can practice!” Soeli replied enthusiastically, undeterred. “When’s your heat, Angela? Is it soon? You should give her three kits all at once, Fareeha! Make up for lost time!”

“Can foxes do that?” a boy asked, the same one who had been asking questions earlier.

“Of course they can!” Soeli declared confidently. “Tods are fertile, and Fareeha’s been saving it all up! Angela’s meant to carry lotsa kits, too! They’re perfect!”

“My papa says it’s all in the hips,” the little boy said, “that a woman needs big hips to bear lots of babies.”

Soeli snorted.

“Your papa’s dumb. Angela’s hips are perfect for Fareeha’s. Besides, foxes are different from women and men! Look at my teeth, and look at Angela and Fareeha, they don’t have any hair on their bodies, just on their heads and their eyebrows! And vixens can only have kits with tods, so that’s why Fareeha and Angela gotta make kits on her very next heat!”

Though she was just a kit, Angela couldn’t help agreeing with Soeli, and a measure of satisfaction at the little one's claims that she was more than qualified to have Fareeha's kits. At the same time, that warm feeling had started to blossom in her stomach again, and she purposefully tucked her head into Fareeha’s shoulder, closing her eyes to keep them from dropping again.

“Make her stop,” she asked, “before I oblige her.”

Fareeha chuckled and hugged her closely, nuzzling a cheek to the top of her head.

“Alright, children, let’s leave the foxes be,” the matriarch called out, giving them both a grateful smile before turning back to the kids. “Gather around for the next story.”

Though it took a few moments, with Soeli, the spoiled little kit taking the longest to settle, every child eventually relented to the matriarch’s words and turned back around in their seats. As the matriarch started her new story, Angela heard a growing commotion a good ways away, past the top of the hill. She heard the voices of a lot of people, and could guess there was a gathering there, an uneasy sort, by the sound of it.

“Mama must be introducing the Carja,” Fareeha said, also having picked up on the noise. “We were at war with the Carja up until a year ago, when they served a madman of a king who thought spilling enough blood to their almighty sun god would stop the derangement of the machines.”

“Derangement?” Angela prompted, the term unfamiliar.

“The machines have been turning violent over the years,” Fareeha began to explain, “and new machines have appeared over the last twenty years, each more dangerous than the last, like the sawtooth, the first new machine to show up. There are others, like the stalkers, machines that can turn invisible. My mama tells me these Carja and Oseram envoys speak of sawtooths armed with weapons, and gigantic, monstrous machines they call thunderjaws.”

“Why is that...” Angela murmured, more to herself than to Fareeha, and then asked, “and this king thought sacrificing people to his god will stop this?”

“They call him the Mad Sun King for a reason,” Fareeha said. “He had his soldiers invade other tribes in the name of his god. The Red Raids, they call it. The Carja never made it to the Embrace, we made sure of that, but we lost many Nora to them. Many vixens…”

When Fareeha trailed off, Angela put a hand on her arm, suddenly aware of many scars the tod bore on her body.

“I had no idea,” she said, feeling guilty.

Fareeha placed a hand over hers, smiling.

“I’m glad you didn’t, because that means we did some good.”

Angela smiled back, the pride in Fareeha’s voice willing her to.

“We can stay here if you’d like, Fareeha.”

Though the tod looked grateful, she shook her head at the offer.

“The Carja in Mother’s Heart today are not the ones who slaughtered innocent people in the name of that madman. These Carja come to us in peace, in the name of the first ever Sun Queen, and our war-chief believes she’s worthy of our trust. I may not agree with my mother when it comes to the way I chose to live my life, but my war-chief? I don't question her judgment, she has never given me a reason to."

* * *

Standing far back from the crowd with Fareeha and the other vixens, Angela watched a tod named Zarya on stage, who rivaled Reindhardt in height and size, address the crowd. The tod, whose long, blonde hair was tied back, had the Nora audience captivated and charmed with each word and animated gesture.

“I’ve only glimpsed the Nora, and I’ve found myself wishing I had been of your tribe,” Zarya said, eliciting a chorus of agreement and awe from the crowd. “I am not a child of the All-Mother, and so I would not be so arrogant as to call myself a fox or a tod, but what I am, my tribe, the Oseram, they despised, think me a deformed, lesser man. My mother and father were ashamed of me, and sought to be rid of me. They ignored my existence, leaving me to fend for myself when I was but a child. At twelve years of age, I fled from the house that never felt like home, and neither my mother nor my father came looking for me. I struggled, for food, for water, for shelter, and it was only when I made myself to look like a man did I find any work. It was a difficult, lonely life I lived, and often I questioned if it was worth living at all. Many years passed, and I grew to resent myself as my mother and father had, believing they were right to wish I had never been born.”

Angela winced in sympathy. Zarya was an outcast, like her, but unlike her, Zarya had been completely alone. She glanced at her companion and one of her only friends in the world to see Fareeha’s dark eyes rapt with grim attention.

Angela wrapped an arm around Fareeha’s back and hugged the tod to her body.

Fareeha’s eyes lowered to her and softened. When Angela didn’t speak, she simply lowered a cheek to nuzzle the top of her head.

“Yet, for as horrible as my life seemed,” Zarya went on, sighing, “I still had a life, which is more than any of my like can say who are Carja, they who are slain mere moments after they’ve taken their first breath.”

Gasps rang out, and then the crowd erupted in fury.

“They murder newborns? Barbaric!”

“What kind of mother allows this horror?”

As the questions turned into demands, and then into outrage, and as the Carjan priests began to slink away from the stage, Angela couldn’t help the violent, selfish flare of her own anger at the Nora.

Where was this call for compassion when she had been outcast at birth?

Where was her mother?

Fareeha began to purr, and it was only when Angela had calmed from the soothing rumble that she realized she had been growling. Past Fareeha, she saw the vixens standing a few feet away, looking at her, and not one fox was against her reaction. In fact, she saw in them what Reinhardt had told her when she was a child, that no fox would shun her as the men and women of the Nora did, and so they were made to live outside of the Embrace. In their eyes, they never saw an outcast, they saw kin.

“Through this and the Red Raids of the Mad Sun King, it was clear that the Carja needed guidance, and that is what its new ruler, the first Sun Queen, seeks from the Nora!” Zarya declared, her clear, loud voice cutting through the noise of the crowd and silencing them. “I shared with you the trials of my life not so I could have your pity, but to show the Nora that change is possible. By the time the Red Raids had made it to the Claim, I had a wife, and we lived far enough from Oseram lands that the Carja would not find us.

My wife and I, we both suffered in the hands of our tribe, but despite this, neither of us could simply stand by. So, we fought for the tribe that deemed me a lesser man and her a lesser woman for being incapable of bearing a man’s child, because it was the right thing to do. This passion is what drives Sun Queen Hana, what drove her to go against Carjan pride and sought the Oseram for help to overthrow the Mad King, what drove her to kill her father, her own blood, because it had to be done, for all the tribes’ sake, most importantly the Carja’s. And she has sent me here to your Sacred Lands, seeking not just the Nora’s forgiveness, but also the Nora’s wisdom. Already she has outlawed the newborn killings, and has given the Oseram a place in Meridian, but that is only a start, and she wishes to take the next step forward with the Nora.”

A bold queen to defy tradition, and smart to have a tod address the fox-worshiping Nora, Angela thought as Zarya continued to speak. She glanced at Fareeha, who seemed equally impressed with the Sun Queen, the curious gleam in her red eyes making her even more unfairly attractive to Angela.

Angela looked at the other vixens, half-expecting them to be envious of the attention Fareeha was directing at her and not them, but to her surprise, they looked very pleased, Qira and Lase especially. Encouraging her, Qira stroked Lase’s cheek, looking at Lase with the most hooded, lustful eyes Angela had ever seen, and then glanced at her, nodding for Angela to do the same. Lase responded by gripping Qira around the ass and yanking Qira close, making the twin squeak in surprise. She similarly shared a look with Angela that read, ‘Like this.’

At that, Angela couldn’t help but smile. Tomorrow was going to be her last day as an outcast, her first as a Nora, but with the foxes, she already felt like she belonged.

Zarya left the stage to a host of cheers and support from the Nora, setting it up nicely for the Carjan priests and diplomats who gathered to make amends. She exited the back of the stage and came around the crowd of Nora humans to the foxes in back, specifically making way to Fareeha.

As the tod drew near, Angela picked up on the strong scent of a vixen that almost completely overpowered Zarya’s. On the tod’s neck, the imprint of sharp eyeteeth teeth could be seen under a deep, dark bruise. Angela stared at it, gut twisted by a very powerful urge to mark Fareeha in the same manner.

“Ah, a fellow,” the tod greeted when she got close enough to them and the other foxes, “I thought I smelled one this way. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Zarya,” she greeted Fareeha, “and to see more of my kind like this,” she added, addressing Angela and glancing at the other vixens nearby. “I have never seen so many at once.”

“A shame you’re mated, Zarya,” Qira said, sighing as she showed no interest in the tod. “We’d have welcomed you properly otherwise.”

Lase murmured in agreement, tugging Qira in tighter.

"Yes," she mused, stroking the twin's side comfortingly. "Disappointing."

Zarya smiled broadly, exposing the sharp eyeteeth all foxes had. "I am sorry to disappoint, but thank you," she said to the twins, and then turned towards them again, continuously eyeing Fareeha in an intrigued, curious manner.

Angela realized that it could very well be the first time she had come this close to another tod before.

"It is good to see the Nora treating our kind so well," she confessed, the words seeming heartfelt.

Fareeha scoffed.

"Not all of us have been treated well," she said, pulling Angela back in close.

Zarya picked up on the gesture.

"Ah," she said, eyes on Angela now, "you must be the vixen outcast I have heard rumors about. The one participating in the Proving tomorrow?"

"That's me," Angela confirmed, wondering how and where the tod had heard about her from. "Angela," she introduced.

"It is my pleasure," Zarya said with a little head bow. Curious eyes - red in color, but lighter than Fareeha's - returned to Angela, and then the tod asked, "If I may inquire, what crime did you commit that would make the Nora cast you out?"

"I was born," Angela answered simply, because she didn't know herself. "Motherless, that's what they call me, so they cast me out."

Zarya's brows drew together in puzzled, troubled confusion.

"That seems very strange," she said, "all the Nora I've spoken to regard our kind with such respect. Why would they cast out a vixen like that?"

"Because they’re fools," Fareeha said passionately, angered by it. "Angela will get her answers when she wins the Proving tomorrow, and we'll find out why then."

"Yes," Angela agreed, undeterred. She had been priming herself for this all her life.

Zarya smiled at the both of them.

"Your confidence is uplifting," she said, "it is not often that I get to see such boldness in my kind, not in my lands,” she shared, once again smiling at Fareeha. “I admit, I have never the chance to speak with another such as myself before. Excuse me if I seem a pest. Do you have many kits of your own, Fareeha?”

Angela felt Fareeha shift against her, uncomfortable.

“I don’t,” she answered. “Not yet.”

Zarya chuckled, not having caught the subtle shift in Fareeha’s demeanor.

“Are you waiting for something?” she teased. "If not for my wife Satya having taken me as her own, I’d happily allow these wonderful vixens to take me to bed. There’s so many of them,” she said, glancing at Angela and all the vixens behind them, “and with such freedom, you could have so many kits. That’s the only downside to traveling into your beautiful lands: I miss my little ones back home.”

Feeling Fareeha’s unease with the subject, Angela hugged her friend’s arm and rubbed it, about to make an excuse to lead them away, but before the words formed, a stout man with a long beard passed by. While the man himself was of little interest to her, Angela caught sight of a red, circular glow near his ear, and under it, a small, metal device just like her own.

“Who is that?” she blurted as he passed, and Zarya caught the direction of her gaze.

Moving surprisingly quick for such a bulky fox, Zarya turned and grabbed the man before he could get too far away.

“Torbjörn,” she said, yanking the heavily muscled man to them with absolutely no sign of strain. “Quiet. The foxes want to meet you,” she said, ignoring his immediate protests. “This is our personal weaponsmith and scrounger, Torbjörn,” she introduced. “Torbjörn, this is Fareeha,” she said, gesturing, “and Angela.”

“Where did you get that device?” Angela immediately asked, foregoing pleasantries altogether.

Torbjörn stepped back, blinking, affronted, and then noticed hers.

“A Nora with a focus?” he asked, startled. His eyes grew wide the moment Angela’s narrowed. “Zarya, I must go---” he started to say, and then as soon as Zarya released him, he quickly made haste. “Work to do,” he mumbled, inclining his head towards them as he made his getaway. “Pleasure, foxes,” he said, though it clearly wasn’t, and then he scampered away.

Zarya frowned, but allowed him to go.

“Sorry about that,” she apologized, "must have his mind stuck on a new project," she said, still frowning after him.

"Do you know anything about that device? That... focus?" Angela asked, suspicious of his quick exit. "Do you know where he got it?"

"That trinket he wears on his ear?" Zarya asked, shrugging well-muscled shoulders. "Torbjörn's a scrounger. He goes digging around ancient ruins and sometimes keeps trinkets he finds here and there."

Angela’s brows drew together, realizing that Zarya knew nothing about the true nature of the ‘focus’, as he had called it.

“He’s usually more amicable,” Zarya said in apology, “I hope he didn’t offend you.”

“It’s okay,” Angela forgave, discreetly eyeing the stout man as he made his way through the crowd. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Zarya,” she said, returning her eyes to the tod only for a moment.

“Yes,” Fareeha agreed, reading her inclinations perfectly. “I hope our tribes can work together.”

“As do I,” Zarya agreed. “Thank you for your time, foxes,” she said respectfully.

It took everything in Angela not to dash away in an instant, but she politely waited, exchanging their farewells, and then stepped away with Fareeha calmly.

As soon as they were a few, safe steps away, Fareeha picked up the pace, squeezing her side tightly. “Let’s go,” she said, knowing Angela wanted to follow Torbjörn.

With a good headstart already, Torbjörn had put a lot of distance between them, but Angela and Fareeha started after him, determined. They made it all of sixteen steps before Ana suddenly stepped in the way of their path.

“Fareeha,” the war-chief greeted, gold eyes casting over to Angela with a certain satisfied look about them. “I see you’re getting along with Angela,” she remarked, sounding pleased. “The ceremony starts soon, are we ready for it?”

“Mama,” Fareeha growled in aggravation, and Angela’s hopes sank as Torbjörn disappeared out of sight in the crowd.

Unable to make a clean getaway from Ana, she sighed, relaxing back next to Fareeha, disappointed.

Ana’s eyes narrowed a little at Fareeha’s tone, but she spoke in a soft, gentle voice. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” she asked Fareeha, who initially huffed, but then stiffened up, eyes widening.

“Angela,” she said, searching the crowd, but seeming distracted. “I have to get something,” she confessed.

“Okay,” Angela said, releasing her arm to let Fareeha know that it was alright. “I’ll be here,” she assured the tod.

Fareeha nodded and snuggled her side before departing, promising she would be back quickly.

Angela turned back to Ana, seeing the mother staring after the tod with a small, proud smile.

“Seems Fareeha’s taken a shine to you,” Ana remarked, gold eyes almost seeming to glow.

“Fareeha’s been such a sweetheart,” Angela said, having felt nothing but comfort and relief with the tod all day. “She’s been wonderful to me,”

“Yes, when she wants to be, it seems,” Ana said, eyes losing their shine as they dropped to address Angela again, tone lowering to a more serious note, “and it seems she only wants to be with you. I’ve no doubt she’s taken it upon herself to make up for how the Nora have treated you. It was one of the two things she's yelled at me about her whole life.”

Angela felt a pang of sympathy for the mother, knowing how Fareeha felt about Ana, but with it, she felt an ever growing affection for the tod, to know that Fareeha seemed to have fought for her as passionately as she had fought for herself.

“Perhaps Fareeha would not have grown up so angry if you had lived with the tribe. Ever since you met, she had been condemning the whole tribe for what we had done to you, how unfair and cruel we had been to cast you out at birth. In you, she saw an innocent blamed for a crime you couldn’t have possibly committed, sentenced to live a life you had no say in. In you, Angela, she saw a kindred spirit, and in the Nora, she had lost respect and faith. Fareeha never was one to sit idly by when something was wrong,” Ana noted wistfully, and it reminded Angela of something she had been told long ago.

“Reinhardt told me you fought for me, that you very nearly got yourself cast out with me,” she said out, and Ana answered before she could even ask.

“Yes,” Ana confirmed immediately, emphatically, “you belong with your kin, Angela. You always have. I’ve done everything in my power to have made that so when you were born. I failed that, I hadn’t done enough; that’s certainly what my daughter thinks. But beloved as we are by the tribe, there are lines even we cannot cross, for there is a small difference between reverence and fear, and fear too easily turns into hate. Fareeha doesn’t understand this, only sees that you were wronged and I hadn’t done right by you. I’m not asking for your forgiveness, Angela, but I hope you’ll come to understand someday. Regardless, tomorrow, all will finally be set right.”

Angela was touched, but also conflicted. As one of the matriarchs, Ana knew why she had been cast out as a child, but the war-chief had never revealed it, despite how she seemed to feel.

“I still intend to win and get my answers,” she told Ana, wary that the mother may not want her to, having never offered them up. “You want me to understand, and I can't do that if I don’t know why I had been cast out.”

To her surprise, Ana’s serious features lightened, turning into a smirk.

“I expect nothing less from you. I advise you to also ask me how I came to name you,” the war-chief said, and then smiled a little, looking over Angela’s shoulder. “Ah, and here my stubborn daughter returns.”

Angela turned, catching the scent of the tod first as Fareeha returned through the thinning crowd back to them. In the tod’s hands, she held a large, rectangular lantern made out of ridgewood and thin, sheer animal skins. Decorating the skin, a fine, blackened etching of a fox among trees stood out on the corner. It wasn’t lit yet, but Angela could imagine it already, illumined with a soft, orange sunset glow.

“Angela,” Fareeha greeted, returning to her side where she held out the lantern to her. “Here. Mama made you a lantern for the ceremony.”

Angela took the lantern from Fareeha, gawking at Ana in awe.

“It’s beautiful,” she admired, touched that Ana would handcraft such a delicate and refined piece for her. She looked over the lantern at the tod and then to the war-chief, so moved, her vision began to blur a little. Traditionally, it was mothers who made the lanterns, Reinhardt had told her. “Thank you," she whispered to Ana.

“Fareeha’s been having me make you a lantern every year for the past eight years,” Ana remarked with a notable tone of approval in that usually-stern voice, “just hoping that you would finally show.”

Overwhelmed by the revelation, Angela wrapped her free arm around Fareeha and hugged the tod close. Standing on her tiptoes, she raised herself to kiss her wonderful friend on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she said again, her words barely breaking a whisper. Her throbbing heart was only more moved when Fareeha purred.

When Angela finally reluctantly withdrew from the beaming tod, she mouthed another thanks, this time to Ana, who graced both of them with a rare, honest smile.

“We’re to eat first,” Ana reminded them, eyes full of affection as she looked upon them both. “You shall sit with us, Angela.”

“I’ll take her,” Fareeha happily said, looping an arm under Angela’s.

“I’ll see you there,” Ana said with a nod, taking them in one last time before turning to go.

Arm in arm with Fareeha, Angela happily followed her closest and most cherished friend.

* * *

Angela watched the lanterns float away until they were tiny blinks in the dark night sky. She could feel Ana’s eyes on her, but she wasn’t ready to leave, not yet.

She wasn’t willing to sleep and end one of the best days of her life.

As fellow participants around her drifted away and departed, someone came in beside her. Angela smiled as the familiar and comforting scent of her friend floated over her. She glanced at Fareeha who smiled back at her, warming her through and through. Angela didn’t want it to end.

“Can I walk you home?” she asked Fareeha, whose face lit up.

“You don’t have to,” she said, despite the reaction, and Angela chuckled.

“I want to,” she said and meant it. “It’s the least I can do after everything you’ve done for me today. Come on,” she encouraged, extending her arm, which Fareeha happily took. Angela glanced up at the raised platform where Ana had been to find it vacated.

“Please,” Fareeha said, moving in close to Angela, warm body protecting her from the drafty night air, “it was a pleasure to keep you company today. I’m glad I caught you earlier.”

“I am, too,” Angela confessed, resting her head against Fareeha’s strong arm. “I was scared to leave Reinhardt this morning, but you kept me comfortable all day. Thank you, Fareeha.”

“I was happy to, Angela,” Fareeha said in a soft voice. “You made my day.”

Angela closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, drawing in Fareeha’s wonderful scent as they walked the dirt road down to the tod’s house. After a quiet moment together, Fareeha asked, “Did you enjoy the communal dinner earlier?”

“Mhmm,” Angela murmured comfortably, opening her eyes to look Fareeha’s way again, pleased every time she did so. “I don’t eat like that with Reinhardt. It was a treat.”

Fareeha’s lips split into a wide smile.

“I made it,” she said, beaming.

Angela blinked.

“You…”

“Made it. The food.”

“Really?” Angela asked, smiling. “That is news, because I recall a kit who ran away because she didn’t want to learn how to cook.”

Fareeha chuckled.

“It became more appealing when I wasn’t trapped in a village anymore. Besides...”

“Yes?” Angela asked, finding conflict on Fareeha’s flawless features.

“I’m still a tod,” Fareeha finally said on a long exhale. “I want what any tod wants: a vixen’s attention, approval, and affection, to someday be mated and have kits that I can take care of and raise...” she confessed, seeming winded as if this might be the first time she had actually said it aloud. “I just want those things on my terms, when I’m ready for them, and that’s not now. That’s why I can’t be with any of the vixens yet; they don’t understand. It takes so much to deny them, to fight with them; it feels wrong. If it were up to me, I’d be a brave and a tod like my papa was, but ever since she died, all the vixens, especially my mama, want to lock tods away to keep us safe. That’s why I can’t join the vixens at the lodge, doing what any tod would love to do. It’s tod or brave for them, one or the other, never both.”

Stopping in front of the house Fareeha was to sleep in for the night, Angela turned and reached up to touch the flustered tod’s cheek gently, torn to see the clear conflict on Fareeha’s pretty face.

“Can’t you tell them that?” she asked. “The way you’ve just told me? I think they’d listen to you and respect your choice. They’d understand.”

Fareeha shook her head.

“They won’t even try, Angela. You understand, you don’t force your assumptions and expectations on me like they do. It’s not their fault, the tribe has expectations of them, too, and I just happen to be caught up in that because I’m the only tod in the Nora. But you, you’re different from them Angela. The way you look at me, I feel like you see me, just me, not some stubborn, selfish tod bent on dooming the future of the Nora foxes in a fool’s pursuit of glory,” the tod confessed, lowering sad eyes, but not breaking away from Angela’s stroking fingers. “I hope that doesn’t change when you become part of the tribe.”

Stricken so deeply by the vulnerability she saw, along with a sort of loneliness that was all too familiar, Angela stood on her toes and kissed Fareeha’s soft lips chastely, and then pulled away after only a moment.

“I won’t,” she promised. “It’s not going to change me.”

Fareeha lifted wistful, hurt, and pleading eyes to her that reflected such powerful inner turmoil, it froze Angela to the spot.

“I hope that’s true,” she said, voice more fearful than optimistic. Soulful eyes searched Angela’s, and then Fareeha spoke quietly. “Don’t go to the cabin tonight,” she asked, raising a hand to lay over Angela’s, which was still on Fareeha’s cheek. “Stay. With me.”

The plea freed her of the paralysis that had stilled her, and Angela drew Fareeha to her again, kissing the tod a second time. As soon as their lips brushed, Fareeha stepped in closer, releasing Angela’s fingers to wrap buff arms around her back. Soft, untouched lips responded to Angela’s passionately, following her lead, and a tingle in her belly blossomed, spreading warmth throughout her body.

Driven by the growing desire within her, Angela caressed Fareeha’s cheek, angling the tod’s face, directing Fareeha even though she had never done or shared this with anyone before. Fareeha’s scent blanketed her, filling Angela’s senses with an overwhelming, pleasant aroma. Angela felt it in her bones, the warmth infected her so deeply. It was more pleasurable than anything she had ever felt before, and she needed more of it.

Angela deepened their kiss, biting Fareeha’s bottom lip in the process. She could feel the tod’s strong form beneath the leathers and purposefully scraped their bodies together as much as their clothes would allow.

“Fareeha,” she mumbled between kisses, wanting so much more.

Suddenly, the bulge in Fareeha’s pants began to grow, and Angela lost all sense of thought. She felt the tod’s cock as it lifted, dragging against her clothed body, and the mere brush of it was electric to her body.

She broke from Fareeha’s lips only long enough to gasp, and then lifted her legs up around Fareeha’s hips. Wrapping her arms around the tod’s neck, she gaspingly ordered, “Bedroom. Now.”

“Yes. Okay,” Fareeha mumbled, gripping Angela around the ass and hoisting her further to carry her away. She managed to open the door before Angela reconnected their lips and tongues. She dragged herself against that hard cock beneath her brave leathers, grinding Fareeha so hard, she almost had the tod stumbling.

Nipping Fareeha’s bruised, bottom lip as the tod carried her through an unfamiliar house into a bedroom, Angela hissed, “I want you.”

Fareeha groaned, so bodily affected by the words, Angela could feel her stiffen even harder. She dragged against that cock again, making both of them moan for the pleasure it caused.

Somehow, Fareeha made it through another set of doors into a room Angela was barely aware of until Fareeha knelt with her on the edge of the bed.

“Angela,” she whimpered in such a wanton voice, it almost sounded pained.

Angela reluctantly drew back from the sweet-smelling tod to recline on the bed on her forearms, but she kept her legs wrapped around Fareeha’s waist, unwilling to release that warm, hard center.

“I want to see you,” Angela voiced, licking her lips as she surveyed her clothed friend.

Fareeha exhaled heavily. She reached for her boarskin belt and removed it first, discarding it onto the floor.

Angela watched, particularly focused on the bulge beneath the leather flaps of Fareeha’s shirt and loose pants. At least, she was until Fareeha removed the leathers from her chest and shoulders, exposing a scarred and muscled abdomen of healthy flesh.

Angela’s eyes roved over every taut inch of flesh. From Fareeha’s outlined, grooved stomach to the smooth curvature of those arms, she was well-muscled and sculpted. Even her breasts held definition; they weren’t heavy, but contoured and defined enough to have Angela salivating.

Angela had never had peers to admire before, not before coming into contact with the Nora, and she didn’t really consider visual beauty before, but there was no other words for it. Every stunning inch of Fareeha was gorgeous.

Angela’s fingers were on Fareeha’s body before she even realized it, stroking those contoured muscles.

“You’re flawless,” she admired aloud, fingers tracing up a deep scar that ran up to her shoulder.

Fareeha’s face brightened, and as Angela stroked the tod’s arm, she flexed.

Delighted, Angela wrapped her arms around Fareeha and pulled the tod over her on the bed to kiss and cling to. As Fareeha’s cock scraped her, she quivered and groaned, wrapping her arms around Fareeha to grip the tod’s back.

“Fareeha,” she breathed on a shaky exhale, thriving in the touch of skin. She wanted more, and Fareeha was quick to serve her needs.

Fingers slipped under the bottom hem of her leathers.

“May I?” Fareeha asked.

“Yes,” Angela breathed, longing to feel this lovely tod against her bare body. She kissed Fareeha again until the leathers had been loosed and discarded, and then she lifted her arms for Fareeha to slide her undershirt up and over her head.

Fareeha pulled it free and tossed it away, and then stared at Angela reverently.

“Wow,” she whispered, saddling and hovering over Angela’s stomach, providing her with a glorious view.

Angela licked her lips and reached up for Fareeha’s second belt, the one over her pants. She began to undo it, once again licking her lips.

“Fareeha,” Angela said, summoning those red eyes that were still roaming her body.

“You’re a goddess,” Fareeha whispered, eyes rounded and awed.

Angela smiled. With Fareeha’s belt loosed, she lifted a hand to the tod’s cheek and stroked the skin there.

Fareeha leaned into the touch to nuzzle her fingers.

“You seem very affected, Fareeha,” she noted, more than a little charmed and pleased by the adoration in the tod’s eyes.

Fareeha continued to nuzzle her fingers.

“You’re perfect,” she purred, almost whimpering it. “I’ve never felt like this before,” she admitted.

Angela’s stroking thumb paused.

“Never?” she asked.

“No,” Fareeha confirmed, and it made Angela smile as a selfish, primal sense of victory filled her with joy.

“I’m the first vixen you are attracted to,” she voiced, pulling Fareeha down to her to kiss the tod’s cheek and whisper into her ear. “The first to arouse you?”

“Yes,” Fareeha gasped, sounding pained.

Angela ran her fingers against the short strands of Fareeha’s hair and made an annoyed sound, not liking that she had nothing to hold on to. She gripped the tod by the nape, exposing that smooth neck.

Fareeha eagerly tilted her head, allowing Angela to kiss down her cheek and neck.

“How is that so?” Angela asked, teasing the tod by softly scraping her sharp teeth against that smooth, unblemished flesh.

Fareeha panted, lifting her chin even higher to give Angela more access to her neck.

Angela smiled, immensely pleased.

“Anytime a vixen went into her heat, I was sent out. Or she was tucked away,” Fareeha murmured, breath ragged with Angela’s sharp teeth still grazing the skin. “It was… part of my request.”

“Oh, you clever tod,” Angela cooed, whispering, so incredibly pleased to hear this, it made her wet. Angela treated the pleading tod by stopping over a soft stretch of neck and inserting her teeth.

Fareeha moaned, arms quivering until they could take no more. She sank against Angela’s body, and Angela welcomed it, hugging Fareeha’s lean body tightly as she marked her friend. She was the first to, the only to, and the thought only fueled the fire in her belly that demanded more and more. Angela bit down on the soft, supple flesh hard enough to bruise, making Fareeha whimper. At the first taste of blood, she withdrew her fangs and licked the spot tenderly, cleaning the blood with her tongue. She slid her thighs over Fareeha's bulge and squeezed the tod through her pants, making the lovely fox whimper again.

Smiling, Angela planted a kiss over the mark on Fareeha's neck and rolled on the bed, taking the tod with her until their positions were flipped, and she, on top.

"I want to see," she demanded, greedy for the reveal that no other vixen had been treated to.

"Yes," came Fareeha’s willing, desperate response, and Angela found herself halfway down the tod's body already. She grabbed both ends of Fareeha's pants and pulled them clean off, exposing what Angela had never seen before, only heard of in sparse clips of conversation. She had no one to compare with, but in proportion to the rest of of Fareeha’s body, the tod’s cock boasted impressive length and girth.

_As she should,_  her instincts told her,  _she’s made for you, to fit you, to fill you. Have her. Take her. Fuck her._

Angela crawled back up Fareeha's body and extended a hand to touch the erect and rigid cock curiously. Fareeha jerked as soon as she did so, startling her initially, but when she glanced down Fareeha’s body, it was to see the tod taut with anticipation, staring back at her with wide eyes.

“Angela,” she whimpered, and Angela smiled.

“You like that?” she asked, and then touched Fareeha again near the wet tip where a clear liquid had already started to seep out.

Fareeha fidgeted again, especially as Angela traced a line down the warm, pulsing cock. Angela gripped Fareeha at the hilt, and the tod whimpered, starting to sit up, but Angela pushed Fareeha back down by the shoulder.

“I want you this way,” she said, dragging her closed fist down Fareeha’s cock in a way that made the tod quiver, her inner walls clenching at empty space as she did, jealous of her hand. She dragged her fingers all the way to the wet tip and touched it, causing Fareeha to buck as she wet her fingers.

“But you---”

“I’m wet,” Angela assured, and Fareeha shuddered again as she dragged her wetted fingers down that giant cock again.

“Angela,” she whimpered.

Angela moved over Fareeha’s body, warmth spreading through her own. She was hungry to feel this tod as no other vixen had, eager to quench this dizzying urge that had been driving her. She had never done this before, but instinct guided her to move over Fareeha’s erection.

“Is this what vixens always feel?” Fareeha asked, the words panted out. “Is it what you felt, staring at me earlier?”

“What do you feel?” Angela asked the flustered tod, still stroking Fareeha as she moved into place. “What do you want?”

“I want...” the tod trailed off, gasping and closing her eyes. “I want to be inside you. Please. I want, I need to feel you, need you to feel me.”

“Yes,” Angela said, sure of it because if the feeling was so pleasant now, she couldn’t even imagine how much better it would be with Fareeha inside of her.

And then she lowered herself on Fareeha’s long, thick cock, finally releasing the tod from between her fingers, and Angela took on a whole new understanding.

Fareeha felt as big as she appeared, forcing Angela’s inner walls to stretch with every baby inch. She gasped as she first began to swell to engulf Fareeha, and in an instant, Fareeha’s hands found her hips to steady her.

Such an overwhelming pleasure took her at first contact, Angela yelled out in pure elation, and Fareeha rubbed her sides soothingly. Her body slid over Fareeha’s and claimed it, sending hundreds of savory, warm tingles throughout her body.

Slowly, she sank on Fareeha, greedily suckling around every inch of the tod she took in. It felt like half an eternity had passed since the moment she had started, but finally, Angela came to a halt. It took a moment after that, but she opened her eyes to find herself firmly planted on Fareeha at the hip. Below her, Fareeha’s powerful, athletic form squirmed on the bed, pliant and yielding to her, a beautiful sight.

Angela lifted her eyes to that gorgeous face, finding Fareeha’s features twisted in a mix of pain and pleasure, the tod’s eyes squeezed shut tightly.

“Angela,” Fareeha whined softly, and Angela savored the sound of her name on the tod’s tongue, along with the submissive noise that came with it.

“Fareeha,” she purred, laying a hand in the middle of the tod’s chest, making those red eyes open, and then suddenly, the tod started purring like crazy.

Angela didn’t know if it was possible or if she had just imagined it, but it felt like the cock inside her swelled further, getting even harder yet. Fareeha’s warm cum seeped from the tip, mixing with her own arousal and heating her from the crux of her body up.

“You purred,” Fareeha murmured, seeming at a loss for words as she gazed back at Angela, body still rumbling contentedly.

“You liked that,” she realized, delighted with Fareeha’s intense reaction to it. She tucked it into the back of her mind and indulged herself for the discovery, dragging her hand down the crevasse of Fareeha’s breasts to trace the perfect contours of the tod’s body.

Then, driven by instinct over anything, having no experience of her own, Angela lifted herself just a few inches back. She inhaled raggedly as her tight, inner walls suctioned over Fareeha, trying to cling as she withdrew, and then she slid back down over it all over again. The warmth in her tummy nearly exploded as she drew Fareeha back into the deepest part of her again, and both of them moaned.

The flash of pleasure was sudden and quick, leaving Angela warm and wanting more. Greedily, she began to do it again.

Fareeha’s hands went from her hips to her ass, which she cupped and squeezed, assisting in the lift back as Angela rode the tod. Her hair fell with every decline, and Angela tossed it back, causing the tod below her to groan again. Every bolt of pleasure built on the last until Angela was feeling it in equal measure on both movements, until it flooded her entire body and she couldn’t imagine how there could be more, but with each slow and measured movement, there was, and it filled her with the most incredible feeling she had ever felt.

Angela shook, relishing in every twitch and buck from Fareeha beneath her, gripping her ass so hard, it hurt in the most pleasurable of ways. She lifted and brought herself back down onto the tod again and again, almost wanting to cry for the pure, incredible build up in her body. Her heart raced and sweat dripped from her brow, but she couldn’t stop, didn’t want to. She never wanted this feeling to end, despite her body’s insistence that it must soon, so she rode Fareeha harder and faster, almost bouncing in pure, wild pleasure as the tod under her made the most beautiful noises. Then, as she took Fareeha to the hilt, the dam inside her broke and Angela yelped, the orgasm sudden and unexpected, but powerful. She seized, sharp nails dragging down Fareeha’s shoulders, and then collapsed when she felt the tod under her come undone, a gush of warm cum shooting into her, soaking her straight to her core.

Barely able to contain herself, Angela twitched, squeezing over the cock inside her as she savored the warm, wet flow pouring into her, wanting to absorb it all, but there was just too much for that. It filled her quickly and began to seep out, and even in the height of maddening bliss, she didn’t want that, so she rolled, carrying the whimpering tod with her, in an effort save it and drink in all that she could.

Angela clutched Fareeha tightly as the gushing stopped. She gripped Fareeha by the back of the shoulders and wrapped her lower legs around those muscled calves, wanting even more. The ecstasy she felt was only just starting to fade, and it made Angela cling to her tod tightly, not wanting any bit of this glorious sensation to go.

But fade, it did, and as the glorious high of her orgasm left her, the greedy, selfish haze that had consumed her began to lift from her mind. She still wanted Fareeha, was ready to do that all over again, but the notion of her bedmate stilled her in a way that she couldn’t have stopped before.

“Fareeha?” she asked when she finally found the voice to, fingers still tightly digging into the tod’s shoulders.

“Angela,” Fareeha croaked back, lifting a tired head from where she had been resting over Angela’s shoulder. Red eyes found hers and Fareeha blinked, seeming a little unfocused.

“Are you okay?”Angela asked, worried about the tod.

Fareeha blinked again, eyes still a little glazed over.

“If vixens feel this need constantly, I feel really bad for rejecting them now,” she mumbled, and Angela laughed.

Keeping Fareeha locked in place above her, Angela grinned. “I’m glad I got you to myself,” she shamelessly confessed, squeezing Fareeha to her body tightly. “I like being the only one,” she said, searching Fareeha’s face, which boasted a bloody lip from where Angela had bitten her.

Angela glanced down at her neck, catching sight of the deep bruise she had laid there as well. Were there others? She couldn’t recall.

“Did I hurt you?” she asked, eyes returning to Fareeha’s face.

“I’m okay,” Fareeha assured, purring contentedly until she realized where Angela was staring. “I like it,” she said, snuggling to Angela’s shoulder near her neck. “I like thinking I’ll smell like you until it heals.”

Angela stroked Fareeha’s shoulder, more than a little pleased by the answer.

“Will Ana mind it?” she asked gently, not wishing to incur the war-chief’s wrath.

Fareeha snorted.

“Mama will probably ask you to bite my wrist and thigh to go ahead and mate me when she finds out about this.”

Angela chuckled, shaking her head.

“Well, don’t worry,” she assured, “if we ever got serious, I would court you first, no matter how Ana might try to rush us.”

Fareeha purred at her words, nuzzling her chin and neck, and Angela smiled at her, grip loosening on Fareeha’s back. She laid back her head to the mattress and groaned contentedly.

“Fareeha. I’ve never been this satisfied in my life.”

Fareeha’s eyes lit up and she smiled as well.

“Me, either,” she confessed, finally releasing Angela’s ass, probably having just realized that she still held it. Fareeha glanced down at them, seeming to realize their positions for the first time, and started to push up off Angela. “Am I squishing---”

Angela clutched her tighter, refusing to let the tod go.

“No,” she assured quickly. “Stay; please.”

Fareeha relaxed back down on top of her, hard cock still inside Angela, which she liked.

“So… you enjoyed it, too?” Angela asked, tracing a scar on Fareeha’s shoulder with her thumb. “I think I might’ve gotten a little rough near the end, I don’t entirely remember it---”

“Every second was perfect,” Fareeha interjected, catching her gaze and held it. Angela stared into those beautiful red eyes and started to purr, pleased with the tod. As soon as she started to, a matching sound passed through Fareeha’s chest, and then they were purring together, the soft rumble very pleasant, especially with Fareeha still inside her.

After an enjoyable moment of listening to the tod’s quiet and soothing breaths, Fareeha admitted, “I prefer it with you on top, but I don’t mind this if you like it.”

Angela grinned and licked her bottom lip in anticipation.

“We should find out,” she said, gaze momentarily dropping to their bodies, so wonderfully crushed together. “See if I like it.”

“I’d be happy to try for you,” Fareeha murmured, purring even louder as she pushed up above Angela, withdrawing slightly, treating Angela to a glorious view of the tod’s body down to the hips, which were still touching Angela’s. The movements shifted Fareeha in her body, but the tod didn’t withdraw from her, delighting Angela. “I want to try something first,” Fareeha said, piquing Angela’s interest. She tilted her head, giving the tod a questioning look, and Fareeha said, “I want to try to get you to show.”

Angela raised a questioning eyebrow.

“To show?” she asked.

“Your clit,” Fareeha said, “I want to see if I can get it to show.”

“My clit?” Angela echoed, confused. “Don’t only women have that?”

“Ah, Reinhardt didn’t tell you?” Fareeha guessed. “Well, I suppose he may not have known, or decided it’d be up to other foxes to tell you. Vixens have clits, too, but it’s… hidden, in a way. To make it come out, to get it to show, I have to find the most sensitive spots on your body when you’re aroused, three of them. It’s different for every vixen, and it’s tricky, because I’d have to touch you in the right order, in the right way.”

“So, my body is like a puzzle for you to solve right now?” Angela asked, and Fareeha nodded, looking eager to try.

“My mama says it usually only happens during a heat for vixens and tods, but I can probably figure it out,” Fareeha said with such easy confidence that it was adorable.

“Where will it be?” Angela asked. “If you get my clit to show. Same as where a woman’s is?”

Fareeha smiled at her, lowering a hand between them, and gently touched between near the top of her folds.

“Yes. Here,” she said, tapping the spot.

“So, if you get me to show, it’ll feel good when you touch me there?”

“Really, really good,” Fareeha promised.

“I think I like the sound of that,” Angela said, licking her lip, warm simply from listening to Fareeha. She pulled the tod down for a long, enjoyable kiss, savoring the taste of Fareeha’s slightly-swollen lips between her own. She held the tod there, running her fingers through the short strands atop Fareeha’s head, lingering for the extra moment because Fareeha felt so good, and then finally released the tod.

Fareeha gave her one last moment, and then her lips moved down Angela’s cheek and neck, kissing the soft expanse of skin on her way down.

Angela smiled as her tod’s head bobbed down when Fareeha reached her collar and lingered, testingly planting little butterfly kisses on her shoulder, barely grazing the skin in their search. Every brushing touch sent pleasant, warm tickles through her body, and Angela didn’t mind the view one bit.

Fareeha purred as she went, lips moving from one spot on her collar to another, and then the shoulder, warming Angela with every pleasant touch. Those forefingers traced gentle lines up and down her sides, and Fareeha smoothed small circles into the sides of her stomach with ambidextrous thumbs.

Angela giggled, enjoying the little flutters.

“That tickles,” she said, laying a finger over one of one of the hands on her side.

"Hmm,” Fareeha mused, pulling back from her left shoulder once she had covered the expanse of it twice over. Those shadowy eyes held a curious, determined light in them that Angela found fiercely attractive. “Maybe the other side,” the tod said, quickly ducking down to her right to repeat the treatment.

Angela giggled again, delighted with her tod. She touched Fareeha’s broad shoulders and fondled them, relishing the taut, corded muscle there. She ran her fingers along them, savoring the feel as Fareeha’s lips searched her collar and shoulder. She gripped the skin to feel that solid muscle, muscle that felt as hard and delightful as the cock still inside her. Everything about Fareeha felt so wonderful, Angela could bask in this warmth forever. It filled her with such a low, pleasant hum throughout her body, all these teasing, fluttering touches.

And then Fareeha’s fingers dropped on her right hip, grazing the soft skin directly under the bone and then applying pressure, and such a wave of pleasure passed through her, Angela stiffened up and shuddered.

Fareeha paused, lifting her lips off Angela. She stroked the area again, causing another strong, pleasant flutter to pass through her. Fareeha’s eyes lit up and she lowered herself to Angela slowly, carefully, eying the crevasse of her breasts, and then ducked that beautiful head down to kiss the area.

The electric sensation passed and Angela exhaled again, giggling when Fareeha lifted a pouting face to her.

“Damn,” she cursed, and Angela giggled again.

“You found one,” Angela said, trying to cheer up her tod.

“I’ll find the others,” Fareeha promised, attention returning to her body as she began the search for more.

Angela lifted a hand to that short, dark hair and stroked it, amused as Fareeha searched her body with a vengeance. Fareeha’s hands roamed her breasts, squeezing them testingly. She thumbed her nipples, but stopped when it didn’t elicit the same reaction as her hip. She licked Angela’s earlobe and touched her stomach. She searched her hips and side, lavishing kisses on her cheek and jawbone, even fondled her ribs. Angela basked in the feeling of Fareeha on her body until she could take it no more and laughed, tickled by the random directions of Fareeha’s search on her body.

Fareeha finally pulled back again, gorgeous lips downturned in the most adorable pout that Angela had ever seen.

“It’s okay,” Angela said, giggling.

“The twins make it look so easy,” Fareeha grumbled, petulant.

“You’ll find them eventually,” Angela soothed, taking Fareeha’s hand in her own to halt her search.

Fareeha looked at her with bruised, wounded eyes.

"I just want to make you feel good,” she said, sounding genuinely upset.

“Fareeha, don’t be silly,” Angela soothed, rubbing the tod’s hand between her fingers, “you did make me feel good.”

“I mean really good,” Fareeha whined, “as good as you made me feel. It’s not the same if I can’t get you to show.”

Angela pursed her lips, continuing to stroke the disappointed tod.

“Well, you’re my first, so I really can’t say,” Angela said, “but everything I’ve experienced so far has been amazing, Fareeha. I’ve loved every second,” she promised, dragging the tod down close to kiss. Her thighs flexed and she squeezed over Fareeha’s delightful cock, making her break off mid kiss to moan a little.

“See?” she said as her heart quickened, turning her eyes back on the lean, handsome tod atop her. “Besides,” she added, glancing down Fareeha’s corded and athletic body. “I believe we were seeing if I liked this position?” she reminded, pulling the tod in for a deep kiss.

As Fareeha kissed her back, Angela’s walls tightened again, eliciting a wonderful groan from the tod that had Angela moving her hands down Fareeha’s body to grip that tight ass.

Fareeha groaned again, affected by her clenching, but obeyed the silent command and began to undulate her hips, withdrawing from Angela a little and sliding back with a tentative, unsure thrust of her hips.

Angela purred in approval, nails digging into the fine muscle of Fareeha’s ass. She smiled as the tod shuddered and moved again, this time with eagerness and certainty.

Pleased, Angela drew Fareeha in for a kiss. She had a feeling she would like this position just fine.

* * *

A few hours later, Angela lay sprawled out in Fareeha’s bed with the tod curled up to her side, snuggling. After long, wonderful hours with Fareeha, she felt sated, better than she ever had in her life, and now, she had a handsome tod to cuddle with as well.

Angela smiled, idly fingering her tod’s her tod's short hair. The length bothered her because her fingers had very little to play with, and she wondered if this was why vixens preferred their tods with long hair. She understood the annoyance, if so.

“Angela, what do you see with it?” Fareeha asked, rousing her from her thoughts to see the tod looking at her focus curiously.

Angela blinked, realizing that she must have forgotten to remove the device during sex, she had been so consumed with Fareeha.

“Here, I’ll show you,” she said, removing the piece to place it on Fareeha’s temple. As soon as activated it, Fareeha gasped, eyes growing wide, and she sat up.

“What are these symbols?” she asked, bracing herself up on the bed as wide eyes surveyed the grid, letters, and panels that only she could see.

“It’s a written language,” Angela told her, “likely that of the Ancient Ones.”

Fareeha’s eyes darted back and forth, lips parted in awe.

“Do you understand it?” she asked, fascinated with the grid.

“Yes,” Angela admitted, “I’ve had it for a very long time. Over the years, I picked it up and learned.”

“Amazing,” Fareeha breathed, eyes turning on Angela now. “You’re amazing, Angela.”

Angela smiled, flattered and very pleased. After having been shunned all her life, she wasn’t used to hearing this kind of adoration, and the fact that it came from Fareeha just made her even happier. She didn’t have words to capture the happiness in her heart, so she pulled her tod back down to share an impassioned kiss.

“You’re amazing, too, Fareeha,” she said once they had finally parted again, and Fareeha’s whole face lit up.

Fareeha bowed her head to extend the kiss, and Angela purred. Fareeha beamed and nuzzled her, purring even louder than Angela.

“Will you teach me how to read the symbols?” she asked, nuzzling into the side of Angela’s neck.

Angela stilled, touched by the question. Fareeha had asked in such a way that included Angela in her future, as if she knew or planned on Angela being a part of the tod’s life.

Warmed and still struggling to express it, Angela pulled Fareeha in for another kiss, this one short and chaste. When she pulled away, she stared into those gorgeous red eyes and smiled.

“I’d love to,” she said, and Fareeha’s whole face lit up as the tod’s purr grew even louder.

Looking into those joyful, curious eyes, Angela felt at peace. It wasn’t a Proving victory, but it felt like she had already won something priceless.


	3. The Proving

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this chapter: incest between the OC vixen twins, and they involve Angela a bit.

Stirring awake, Angela opened her eyes and smiled at what greeted her: Fareeha snuggled up to her, the tod’s head tucked under her chin and the tod’s body half-draped on her, the weight pleasant and welcomed. In a deep sleep, Fareeha clung tightly to her, strong arms wrapped around her waist and long legs tangled with hers. It was a sight, but what made Angela smile was the sound and feel of a comfortable tod purring in her sleep.

Pride swelled in Angela’s chest as basked in Fareeha’s purring, that this gorgeous tod not only trusted her, but felt safe with her.

Her smile growing, Angela touched Fareeha’s hair, imagining how it would feel were it long. She wondered if Fareeha would mind growing it out for her, and immediately her instincts berated her for even questioning it, that, of course, Fareeha would do as she asked. At that, her eyes sought Fareeha’s neck, and Angela nearly shuddered in possessive delight when she saw the mark - her mark - on the tod’s once untouched skin. She inhaled deeply, pleased that her scent was mixed with Fareeha’s.

“Proud of yourself? You should be.”

Startled, Angela’s eyes darted to the direction of the voice, where she found Ana smirking down at her.

“Ana,” Angela murmured, brows furrowing at the war-chief. “I didn’t smell you.” She wouldn’t put it past Ana to move quiet enough to evade fox hearing, but to not have caught the war-chief’s scent unsettled Angela.

“You would have if you hadn’t been enjoying Fareeha that much,” Ana teased, and then smirked again as Angela continued to stare at her curiously. “No shame? Good. Reinhardt did raise you right. If you made like a woman and hid from me out of embarrassment, that would not do.”

“I’m a vixen,” Angela declared, responding to the challenge in Ana’s eyes. “I feel no shame of flesh or sex. That’s not in my nature, Reinhardt made sure I understood that,” she said, nearly growling, and when she realized it, she looked at Fareeha, afraid she had woken the tod, but the continuous purring assured her she hadn’t.

“I wouldn’t worry, she’s sleeping heavily,” Ana remarked, spotting the mark on her daughter’s neck that Angela had no intention to cover. “Didn’t think Fareeha would ever purr in her sleep again. She last did with her father.”

Ana’s voice had turned to a whisper, expression softening as she watched her sleeping daughter.

Angela averted her gaze, feeling like she was seeing something she wasn’t meant to, and on Ana’s shoulders, she noticed for the first time that a fox - the four-legged, furry sort - that must have been there from the start, watching her.

“Is that…?” she wondered out loud.

“The same fox you saw with Fareeha fifteen years ago? Yes,” Ana said, drawing her attention back. “Her mate was killed by a machine, and the one kit she carried, a stillborn. She’s been a part of our family since.”

“What do you call her?” Angela asked, looking at the beast whose once bright fur had dulled, their four-legged counterparts not blessed with eternal youth.

“Ra,” Ana said, reaching up to pet the fox.

“A strong name,” Angela commented, realizing it matched the fox, who looked able and healthy despite her old age. “It suits her.”

Ana nodded, smiling at the fox.

“Of course. She deserved nothing less for persevering through the loss of her mate and kit,” the war-chief said, turning back to her. “Breakfast is soon, Angela, and the Proving right after. Jesse told me you’re very partial to your clothes, so I’ve washed them. They should be dry right now, which is good because you’ll have to get your weapons from the lodge.”

“No,” came a protest, but not from Angela.

Fareeha had woken up, her purring having ceased, and the moment Angela made an attempt to get up, the tod pulled her back to bed, front pressed against Angela’s back and arms wrapped around her waist.

“Fareeha,” Ana chided, though evidently amused. “You let Angela go, and it’s out of bed with you as well, or do you want to send Angela to the Proving on an empty stomach?”

Fareeha whined, a sound Angela found adorable. The tod nuzzled her neck, breathing in her scent.

“I want to cuddle with Angela, Mama,” Fareeha mumbled against her neck.

Ana laughed, reaching over to touch her daughter’s short hair.

“I know you want to stay close to Angela, but you both have things to do,” Ana murmured, her voice taking on the same soft tone from earlier. “You’ll see her again at breakfast, and there’ll be plenty of time for cuddling after she wins the Proving.”

It took a moment, one filled with more whining from Fareeha, but the clingy tod eased her grip. Angela, now free to move, quickly turned to face Fareeha, touching the tod’s cheek and tracing those pouting lips with her thumb.

“We can cuddle all you want after the Proving, Fareeha,” she said, knowing it was the right to say when the tod’s eyes lit up.

Angela leaned in, taking a kiss and then gently biting over her mark on Fareeha’s neck before finally getting up.

* * *

Cresting the top of the hill, Angela stopped before a massive wooden lodge and gazed upon it in awe. The vixens’ lodge spanned the full length of three average houses. Circling it, a beautiful garden of vibrant flowers and herbs grew out of lush, well-tended soil, and the windows had hanging troughs of vibrant plants as well. The lodge was clean and the air smelled fresher up here, tinted with the scents of her kin.

Inhaling a deep breath of the clean, campfire-tinted air, Angela set out for the grand front entrance. In a few steps, she reached the doors, grabbed the handle, and opened it. She stepped in, crossing the threshold to enter a short entryway that led to a long, spacious room full of big beds lining the walls all the way down to the kitchen at the far end. Occupying those beds, a vast number of vixens filled them, some socializing, some sharing each other’s warmth, and one in particular near the door that caught Angela’s immediate attention. Her eyes bulged.

“Qira?” she blurted, stunned to find the vixen naked and sitting atop her sister’s face.

Qira didn’t react, only moaned and humped Lase’s face. She leaned back atop her sister’s body, startlingly flexible, and aggressively cupped Lase between the legs. Her fingers curling into Lase's crevasse as her sister continued to lick and tease her exposed clit.

Angela blinked, frozen for a few seconds, and then peered closer as Lase’s tongue circled the queer little button between Qira's legs.

Every move Lase made seemed to drive Qira crazy. Whether it was the casual flick of her tongue or a light grazing around the sensitive nub, Qira reacted. She moaned when Lase licked, back arching when her twin took that sensitive nub between talented lips, and then when Lase took her between the teeth with a gentle, tender bite, Qira screamed.

Lase removed a hand off Qira’s hip and held up a finger, silently signalling that she needed another moment.

Angela stared, utterly unable to look away.

“Ohh,” Qira suddenly groaned as Lase’s hand returned, this time to a specific spot on the lower back. Qira began to quiver and moan. “That’s cheating,” she said, gasping, and then gripped Lase’s sex even harder. “Oh, oh!” she cried out, riding Lase’s talented mouth again, body trembling before she went taut, pretty features skewing. “Fuck!” she cursed, and Angela watched as the orgasm overcame the vixen, freezing Qira but for the stiff and jerky jolts that shook that lithe and glorious body.

Lase didn’t pull away, not immediately. The smug vixen continued to tease her twin, licking and biting the sensitive nub until Qira jerked again, cursing as the second orgasm hit.

Finally, Lase pulled back as Qira removed fingers from her and laid back atop her body, head resting on her right leg. Lase licked her lips, staring down Qira’s body in hungry satisfaction.

“Lase,” she murmured.

Lase grinned.

“Love you, too, Qira,” she said, eyes finally drifting over to Angela. She wiped her mouth with the back of a hand. “Angela,” she greeted, smile widening. “You smell like good sex. Come here,” she said, patting the empty spot on the bed.

“Mmm,” Qira murmured, smiling a little, eyes still closed, “Angela smells…”

“Like Fareeha,” Lase finished, teal eyes gleaming. “Tell us everything.”

“You’re sisters,” Angela finally managed to mumble, finding it very difficult to look away from Qira’s exposed clit. She glanced at Lase’s eager expression, and then her eyes drifted back again. Reinhardt had told her of vixens’ sexual natures, but not that it extended to their sisters.

“We are,” Lase murmured with another suggestive lip lick, gazing down Qira’s exposed body again. “Lucky us,” she said, tantalizingly dancing fingers across that sensitive spot.

“Lase,” Qira moaned, back arching up. She slapped Lase’s hand away. “Let me rest.”

“Angela’s staring at you,” Lase told the twin.

Qira’s eyes remained closed, but she smiled. “Mmm, is she now?”

“She likes your clit,” Lase stated with absolute certainty, mischievous eyes flickering over to Angela.

“I didn’t know until last night that we had clits,” Angela explained, still staring.

“Would you like to touch it?” Lase offered, rubbing the spot on Qira’s back again and making the vixen moan.

“Lase,” came the plea.

“Okay,” Lase finally agreed, chuckling as she lifted a hand from the spot on Qira’s back to wave Angela over. “Come,” she encouraged, “Qira doesn’t mind.”

“I’ll be your first,” Qira said with a satisfied smirk as Angela approached. “I like that.”

As Angela pulled up to the bed beside the twins, Lase nodded to the private spot between Qira’s legs.

“Go on,” she invited Angela, whose curiosity already had her lifting a hand to touch.

Qira lifted a hand, eyes still closed, and grabbed Angela’s forearm before she could get too close.

“Careful,” Qira ordered, and Angela gave the vixen a questioning look, to which Lase answered.

“It’s very sensitive,” she said, enunciating for emphasis. “Touch her the wrong way and she’ll attack you.”

Angela’s eyebrows went up, but Lase merely grinned.

“I’ll show you,” she said as Qira released her arm. “I’m very familiar with Qira’s body; aren’t I, Sister?”

“You are,” Qira cooed, sounding delighted.

Angela slid closer to the smug vixen, and Lase touched Qira, effortlessly retrieving her twin’s clit between two gentle fingers for Angela to see.

“Touch her like this,” Lase instructed, gently caressing Qira’s clit. “Stroke her,” she hissed, eyes alive on the sister, hypnotized with the way Qira quivered and moaned. They watched the shivers flutter down that glorious body, the gradual arch of a smooth, flawless back. Angela’s eyes returned to that private place between Qira’s legs and she learned.

“You try,” Lase finally said, releasing Qira, who groaned.

“Lase,” she whimpered for Lase’s fingers.

“Shh,” Lase quieted soothingly. “Angela’s got you,” she said, glancing up and nodding for her to proceed.

Angela reached down between Qira’s legs and touched the vixen in that soft, squishy place between wet folds. The vixen shuddered at first contact, and then began to hum softly as Angela traced her finger up until she reached the small, sensitive bump. The second she brushed it, Qira shuddered so violently, she gripped the bed to keep from jumping up.

“Gentle,” Lase coached, eyes alight with a burning, passionate fire. She squeezed Qira’s sides, hands holding her twin’s hips firmly.

Extremely conscious of her movements, Angela circled her forefinger around the super sensitive nub gently, and was rewarded when Qira relaxed against Lase again. A faint tremor went through the vixen’s body, one that became more noticeable with every millimeter that Angela drew closer with. Finally, with the barest hint of a grazing, Angela brushed Qira again, and this time, she moaned.

“There you go,” Lase murmured, stroking the sister’s sides, “like that, Angela,” she encouraged, and Angela ventured to carefully brush the sensitive nub again.

“Mmm,” Qira hummed, smiling a little. She licked wet lips and exhaled heavily at the second touch, and then grinned by the third brush, eyes still closed. “Angela,” she murmured in the most sexual voice Angela had ever heard, lulling her deeper and deeper into the intrigue of pleasuring Qira through her clit. “Squeeze me,” she ordered, and ever so cautiously, Angela took the sensitive button between her forefinger and ring finger to soothingly caress.

“Ohh,” Qira breathed, biting her bottom lip in pleasure as faint tremors continued to travel through her body. “Angela, yes,” she whispered, suddenly grabbing Angela’s wrist, stilling her. She laced fingers down on top of Angela’s and gently guided them down to the seeping crevasse. Dizzy, pleasured eyes opened on Angela and gleamed. “That’s from you.”

“Thumb her clit,” Lase ordered, fiery teal eyes rising to Angela. She caught her gaze and nodded, salaciously biting a tongue, eyes hooded and sexual. “She’ll love it,” Lase promised.

Forefingers wetted inside Qira, Angela moved her thumb back to the sensitive button. She circled the clit once more, and then tenderly dragged her thumb over it.

Qira whimpered.

“Pump your fingers,” Lase commanded, fingering the sensitive spot on Qira’s back that made the vixen quake.

“Lase,” Qira hissed, back arching on the twin, giving Lase even easier access to fondle the soft spot.

“Do it,” Lase ordered, and then bit the soft, supple skin of Qira’s inner leg.

Mindful to be ever so cautious with Qira’s clit, Angela followed the command and began dipping her fingers in and out of the vixen, soothing her thumb over the nub ever so delicately while Lase held Qira at the hip, fondling her twin’s lower back and kissing her silken leg.

Qira lost the ability to speak amongst the whimpers, body uncontrollably trembling. She bucked, but Lase’s firm grip kept the vixen still and safe from accidentally hurting herself. Qira moaned, twisting as Angela’s fingers slipped between wet walls that clamped down, harder and faster with every re-entry.

Lase’s right hand dropped from Qira’s hip, then, sliding down a few inches to the left ass cheek. She fondled the silky skin until she reached a small spot, high on the inner cheek. As soon as she brushed it, Qira shuddered and clenched hard. She whimpered, breasts raised high from that curvaceous arching back, and they jiggled with every pleasured moan. The tremors shuddered through every part of that body, captivating Angela, who stared as sweat beaded Qira’s brow.

Qira gasped, choking to draw in more air than lungs would allow, and eyes closed as the rising orgasm claimed the vixen, and then suddenly, Qira went taut. Wet, inner walls clamped down over Angela’s fingers so hard, she couldn’t move them, and Qira stopped breathing for a long, long moment.

Lase finally pulled away from the now bleeding mark on Qira’s inner thigh as the vixen finally exhaled and relaxed against on her twin again, eyes still closed and breathing deeply in.

“She’s perfect,” Lase hissed, dragging fingers over Qira’s sensitive spots, eliciting one final shudder as Qira rode out the high.

“She is beautiful,” Angela admired, finally withdrawing her fingers from the exhausted twin. Lase caught her wrist as soon as she had pulled out, and Angela looked at the vixen questioningly until Lase tugged her hand closer and took Angela’s sticky forefingers deep into her mouth. Angela felt the vixen’s tongue flush against her fingers, wrapping around them as Lase licked clean the taste of Qira.

“Lase, stop being so attractive,” Qira breathed out shakily, eyes still closed as she enjoyed the moment.

Lase suckled the last bits of her fingers as Angela withdrew them from her twin’s mouth.

“You came on my chest,” Lase hissed back, as if that justified it.

“Angela,” Qira said, half choking on a rising laugh, “make her stop. It’s the fifth time this hour.”

Angela’s eyebrows went up and she gave Lase a look.

Lase nodded to Qira, who was still on top, their bodies flush against each other.

“Wouldn’t you?”

Angela smiled.

“We should take her together, Angela,” Qira murmured, still resting.

“If we don’t have you again first,” Lase threatened, making Qira shudder and cross those silken legs.

“No...” she protested faintly, smiling. “Not yet.”

“Thank you for indulging me,” Angela added absentmindedly, amused by the unusual pair.

“You were good,” Qira purred, and Angela just picked up on it; Qira’s whole body rumbled in a soft, satisfied purr.

Lase patted an empty spot on the bed, beckoning Angela to sit.

“We shared,” she said as Angela took the empty spot on the bed. “Your turn.”

“Yes,” Qira agreed with a dizzy, pleasured smile, still not ready to open those teal eyes to the world again yet. “How was Fareeha?”

“Did she get you to show?” Lase asked.

“We only found one of my spots last night,” Angela confessed, and Qira chuckled.

“Tods struggle with that, supposedly. Finding them,” she said.

“We’ll help you,” Lase offered, lifting a hand to stroke up her arm.

Angela laughed.

“Thank you,” she said, letting Lase’s hand wander, “but it was wonderful, anyway. Fareeha’s… she’s just…” she paused, searching for the word, “she’s perfect,” she finally said settling for it, even though it couldn’t even begin to capture the tod.

“Mmm,” Qira hummed, “she would give beautiful kits.”

“Will she sleep with us yet?” Lase asked eagerly, gripping Qira by the hips.

Angela shook her head.

“I can’t speak for Fareeha,” she said, keeping the conversation they had shared yesterday private, “I’m just lucky that she chose to be with me last night.”

“Maybe she’s warming up to the idea,” Qira said, though Lase visibly seemed disappointed.

“Would be nice,” she replied with a sigh.

“Fuck!” someone cursed so loud, even Lase looked over.

Angela glanced up to see a dark-haired vixen quickly evacuating the bed of a beautiful redhead. The redheaded vixen sat up as the brunette left her, face falling fast.

“Ris, come on,” she pleaded, grabbing the vixen’s wrist before she could storm away. “You know I want to.”

Ris latched onto the vixen’s wrist in turning, pulling her partner up and out of bed with one effortless yank, dragging the redhead close.

“Then, let’s,” she growled in the redhead’s ear as their naked bodies slid together. Ris wrapped an arm around the redhead’s waist, whispering in a slightly softer tone now, but one that Angela could make out with no problem. “Fuck their rules, Viate. I don’t want kits with some tod, I don’t want any tod even if I could pick,” she hissed, lifting a hand to the redhead’s chin to turn it and expose a long, pale, slightly bruised neck. “I just want you,” she said, and then licked the bruised spot near Viate’s collar, making the vixen gasp breathily.

“Ris…” Viate murmured wantonly, eyes closing in pained pleasure as Ris licked the spot.

“We’ll say it was an accident,” Ris whispered coaxingly, arm tightening around the hollow of Viate’s back. “We got caught up.”

“No one’s going to believe that,” Viate whispered back, a pained tone of desperation in her strained voice. “They know how much I love you.”

“They’ll deal with it,” Ris said, opening a mouth lined with sharp teeth to press them gently against Viate’s neck.

Viate shuddered as Ris began to bite, the bruised skin indenting under the pressure, yielding to the brunette, and then Viate lifted arms between them and pushed Ris away by the shoulders.

“We can’t,” she said, closing beautiful pink eyes as Ris growled instantly in reply. “You know we can’t, Ris. We’ll be cast out, if not exiled entirely. Nora law can be so awful, I know, look what they did to Angela, but at least we can be together. That’s so much more than you can say for any other tribe.”

Ris’ jaw clenched. She clutched Viate’s arm and growled.

“That’s not enough.”

“It has to be,” Viate countered, running fingers up the angry vixen’s cheek as she gazed upon her angry partner with sorrowful, pained eyes.

Ris’ orange eyes gleamed with hot, angry, emotional tears as Viate stroked her cheek. She lifted a hand, catching Viate’s fingers, and moved her vixen's hand to her lips to kiss those fingers.

“Come,” Viate said again, lifting a second hand to Ris’ shoulder to pull the vixen back down to the bed. “Make love to me,” she ordered, and Ris aggressively gripped Viate, pinning her partner to the bed to do so.

“That’s been happening a lot,” Qira said, and Angela glanced back at the vixen to see those lovely teal eyes had finally opened, although she still looked a little dizzy with pleasure. “Almost daily with those two now; Ris gets so angry and Viate has to talk her through it.”

“How long have they been trying to mate?” Angela asked, watching the two roll around on the bed with a heavy feeling in her heart.

Fareeha wasn’t the only one struggling with her place according to tribal law, it seemed. No wonder the tod didn’t harbor ill feelings towards the vixens; they were trapped as much as she was.

“With them, just a few months,” Qira informed, “but others have waited for years.”

“That’s awful,” Angela said, horrified by the notion, “the Nora won’t let them mate at all?”

“No, no mating whatsoever. Not between vixens or tods, not since Fareeha’s father died after siring just one kit. The Nora want us ready and able to reproduce an army for them, and who can blame them? We’re the best fighters they have. Fareeha really messed with that plan when she became a brave and asked for choice as her boon. The Nora use their laws to control us, but Fareeha turns their laws against them. Kind of funny, really. Smart fox, that tod.”

“If only she didn’t hate all of us,” Lase added, grumbling, and Angela felt another pang of guilt.

“At least we know she’s interested,” Qira pointed out, causing Lase to grumble again.

“If that’s a good thing.”

Qira made a face at her twin, but looked to Angela and asked, “What do you think, Angela? Did it seem like she might be receptive to the idea of being with us like she did with you?”

Angela wasn’t sure how to answer without betraying Fareeha’s confidence. She thought on it for a few seconds, but was thankfully saved from providing an on-spot answer by the abrupt arrival of pair of vixens.

One, a long-haired blonde with a lean, curvaceous body, sat next to Angela directly and wrapped an arm around her side.

“Hey, don’t be greedy!” the other, a tall, long-limbed brown-haired vixen, protested.

The blonde’s fingers traveled to the hem of her shirt at the side and lifted it to sneak under, and then in seconds, Angela was shuddering as a wave of pleasure passed through her at the tactful stroking of her sensitive spot. She trembled and leaned in the blonde’s direction, seeking some kind of pillar of support, and the blonde grasped her tightly to keep her from falling.

“I can make you show just like that,” a soft, velvety voice whispered into her ear, and the grasping fingers finally let up on her side.

When Angela opened her eyes again, she found a very, very generous set of breasts fill her vision, and she raised her head quickly, releasing she had curled right into the vixen’s side at the unexpected assault on one of her sensitive spots. Looking up now, she found high-angled cheekbones, beautiful cyan eyes, and a subtle, seductive smile.

“Hello, Angela, I’m Nizeke,” the blonde introduced, “do you want me to touch your other two spots?”

“Damn it!” the scruffy brown-haired vixen in front of her cursed. “How am I supposed to impress Angela now, Nizeke? Stop cheating with your smooth, charming voice, your big, beautiful breasts...”

The corner of Nizeke’s lips quirked.

“I’m good, too!” the frustrated vixen claimed, and then huffed when Nizeke’s smile grew. “Oh, shut up, you gorgeous, irresistible vixen of my dreams…”

“How did you do that?” Angela asked, catching the amused vixen’s eye again. “You found it in seconds,” she said, indicating the hand at her hip. “How?”

“Nizeke finds them like they’re in plain sight,” Qira explained as Lase finally sat up, moving Qira down between her toned legs. “She knows all our spots. Ris is really fast to find them, too.”

As soon as she had finished speaking, Lase kissed Qira, and the two began to passionately make out.

“Well, Angela?” Nizeke asked with a subtle, sneaky slip of the tongue, alluring scent telling Angela that she was already aroused. “What do you say?”

“Nizeke, she doesn’t have time for that,” a new voice from behind them said, and the ghosting fingers grazing Angela’s side paused as they both glanced back over their shoulders to see a raven-haired vixen with short, cropped hair coming around the far side of the bed. “She has her Proving today, and she can’t be exhausted for it.”

“Letly,” Nizeke chided, fingers grazing the soft spot on Angela’s side again, making her shudder. “One go won’t hurt…”

Letly reached out and grabbed Nizeke by the wrist.

“Aww,” the brown-haired vixen complained, “first Nizeke takes Angela, and now you’re stopping all the fun, Letly.”

“Yes, I am,” Letly answered, pulling Nizeke’s hand off her side. “Your equipment’s over here, Angela,” she said, nodding back the other way.

“Another time, Angela,” Nizeke promised, catching her eye, and Angela couldn’t help but feel a little flattered and welcomed by the attention.

“See you at breakfast, Angela," Qira told her between kisses with Lase as Letly took her arm.

“You alright?” Letly asked her quietly as they made their way to a bedpost in the back. “I know you’re not used to us yet.”

“I think I’m getting there,” Angela said, glancing back over her shoulder to see the twins clutching each other tightly and the vocal, brown-haired vixen extending a hand to help Nizeke gracefully rise. It seemed like the very air around Nizeke parted with every step she took. Every one of them had auras; they were sexual, exciting, a little intimidating, but inviting.

Letly smiled at her in a friendly fashion.

“I see that,” she said, chuckling, “and Fareeha’s certainly given you quite the welcome.”

Angela’s heart sped at the mention of the gracious tod who had warmed her bed, and she felt a small thrill of excitement. Bidding Letly and the vixens thanks and goodbye, Angela hurriedly gathered her things and rushed out to meet Fareeha for breakfast.

* * *

In the bright, early morning sunlight, Angela approached the communal breakfast tables that lined the grass outside the village hall.

When she drew close enough, Ana waved her over from a spot near the end of the tables, where the war-chief and the other matriarchs sat. Angela went over to the war-chief, smiling in greeting.

“Fareeha will sit here,” Ana informed, gesturing to the empty seat next to her own. “She’ll be down shortly.”

“Okay, thank you,” Angela said, nodding as she took the seat two down, leaving Fareeha’s space open. “Do you usually eat out here together?”

“Fareeha doesn’t, but she asked me to keep her a seat today,” Ana explained, lips seeming to lift a little in satisfaction.

“Ana, you’re setting a bad example,” one of the matriarchs reprimanded. “The festival’s over.”

“Nonsense, Fletcha,” Matriarch Rasa hushed, catching Angela’s eye briefly and flashing her a quick smile. “Today is the Proving, and we are bound by law to treat each brave hopeful fairly.”

“That doesn’t mean we should openly coddle an outcast who has yet to prove anything,” Fletcha snapped, giving Angela a disdainful look.

“Nor does it mean we let her status, one she did nothing to deserve, color our perception of her,” Ana answered, earning a scoff.

“Did nothing to deserve,” Fletcha muttered, glaring at Angela as if she had insulted Fletcha’s great grandchildren.

Angela gave Ana and Matriarch Rasa a grateful look. The hateful words of Matriarch Fletcha hurt, reminding Angela of the loneliness she had faced growing up around a tribe that despised her, but the exodus of Matriarch Fletcha to another table of surly matriarchs and the incoming arrival of some vixens from the lodge immediately eased her. They took one look down the table and a few of them immediately ventured her way, including Letly and the brown-haired vixen, and even the couple Angela hadn’t even met, Ris and Viate.

The brown-haired vixen and Letly took the seats across the table from her and Ris and Viate sat on her left.

“Hi, Angela!” the brown-haired vixen greeted with a smile. “We didn’t get a chance to really talk. My name is Frea.”

“I’m Ris,” the brunette introduced and gestured to the vixen one seat down. “That’s my…” she trailed off, glancing at the matriarchs, and said, “Viate.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Angela greeted back, comforted by the warm reception.

Viate sniffed the air a couple of times, and then bluntly stated, “I recognize that scent. Did the twins get to you already?”

“They did,” Frea answered for her, “Nizeke almost did, too, the damn honey-scented temptress. Don’t be so hasty to join into bed with her, Angela,” she warned. “You’d be better off starting with the more… well-behaved vixens.”

Ris snorted.

“Grabbing asses is considered well-behaved now?”

“Hey,” Frea barked, “I don’t walk up to a vixen and touch a spot without asking.”

“Because you can’t do it?” Ris taunted, and Angela couldn’t help but giggle. “Personally, I’d go for Nizeke first,” Ris told her, and Frea protested.

“Be quiet, Ris!” she hushed. “You’re only saying that because you and Nizeke are alike.”

“You mean that we’re both amazing lovers?” Ris questioningly answered.

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Frea grumbled, “you think it’s a coincidence that you and Nizeke are like that and that you’re both exclusively attracted to vixen scents? There’s a connection, I’m telling you!”

Viate wrapped an arm around Ris and chuckled.

“You’re funny, Frea,” she said, turning Ris towards her for a kiss.

“Letly,” Frea whined, grabbing the vixen who had been quiet, “help me.”

Letly raised an eyebrow, glancing at Angela, and said, “If you enjoyed your time with Qira and Lase, I’d try Nizeke first. If that was intense for you, Frea’s a better option.”

Frea started to protest, but then settled and admitted, “Okay, that’s fair.”

“Isn’t that what I said?” Ris asked, smirking.

Frea growled, her annoyance making Viate laugh.

“So, Angela,” Viate posed, asking, “has a fox caught your eye already?”

As the words finished coming out of the vixen’s mouth, a fresh, delightful scent caught on the wind, and Angela perked up, glancing down the tables to the far end.

Making way down from the head of the table, Fareeha, dressed in typical brave armor, strode down the left side of the tables, turning heads with every step. The gathering was still small and uncrowded, but a hush fell over the vixens as the beautiful tod drew closer.

Letly’s eyebrows lifted, and Frea blinked several times.

“Fareeha?” she whispered.

Ris stared at Fareeha’s bare neck, which the tod had left exposed.

“Is that…”

“Angela,” Fareeha greeted when she came in close enough, ignoring everyone else. She slid into the spot on the bench beside Angela. She put a plate down in front of Angela and extended arms around her to hug as she cuddled up to her side. “Good morning,” she said on an exhale that almost sounded like a purr. “I made this for you.”

Viate choked on a glass of water, spewing some, and it took Ris a second to break out of the trance to assist the vixen.

Angela glanced down at the plate specifically made for her, and then back at Fareeha.

“It smells amazing Fareeha, thank you,” she said affectionately, lifting a hand to stroke Fareeha’s cheek as the tod snuggled with her and purred.

“You bit her,” Ris mumbled in shock.

Angela glanced up, not as immune to the vixens reactions as Fareeha seemed, and she picked up on the slightly-stricken tone in Ris’ voice, noticing the way her fellow vixen absentmindedly reached for Viate’s neck before the other vixen took the hand and held it.

The poor thing was jealous, Angela realized, and though the circumstances were different - biting just Fareeha’s neck was not enough to mate her, unlike in Ris and Viate’s case - but she could imagine how unsettling it was to see Fareeha proudly wearing a mark that Ris couldn’t give to Viate.

Having sensed Ris’ distress as well, Viate turned the lover’s cheek and kissed Ris deeply.

“Wow,” Frea whispered, voice still hushed.

On Fareeha’s other side, Angela spotted Ana watching them quietly, smirking.

“It’s good to see you out, Fareeha,” Letly said, the most level-headed of all of the reactions.

Fareeha glanced at the vixen, acknowledging the greeting, but only momentarily. Eager eyes returned to Angela quickly, and Angela rubbed her hand up the tod’s side soothingly.

“Are you hungry?” she asked Angela.

“Famished,” Angela said, picking up the fork while still holding the tod close. She began to eat as Qira and Lase joined them at the table, other vixens filtering in as well. The vixens all seemed to sit apart from the rest of the villagers, Angela noticed, clustered around four long tables on the right side.

“Fareeha, this is delicious,” she told the tod, whose whole face lit up in light of the praise. “Thank you.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Fareeha said, obviously proud.

“Fareeha, that is quite a mark you’re sporting,” Qira observed, looking at them from across the table, at Letly’s right where she and Lase had sat.

Fareeha touched the mark at Qira’s words, smiling and now looking twice as proud.

“Angela seemed to have enjoyed you,” Qira observed, eyes traveling between the two curiously. “She touched my clit this morning,” she told the tod, and Angela glanced at Fareeha to see the tod didn’t have a reaction to the revelation. “I’d extend the same offer to you, for the practice,” she offered.

Fareeha rubbed at the bruise lightly and then gave Qira a nod.

“I’ll think about it,” she said, which both startled and thrilled the surrounding vixens, causing a few murmurs.

Lase, Angela noticed, looked at her and winked.

“Fareeha!” a screeching voice hollered suddenly, and Angela lifted her head to see Matriarch Fletcha returning in a rage. “You allowed the outcast to bite you!”

Fareeha sighed as the angry matriarch strode back to their table, this time accompanied by two other matriarchs, both red-faced as well.

“Matriarch Fletcha, lower your voice,” Ana said, also sighing.

“Lower my voice?” Matriarch Fletcha asked incredulously. “We have dozens of faithful, willing vixens who would love to take her to bed, and yet Fareeha has sullied herself with this impure, lowly wretch, even going as far as to allow the filth to bite her!”

Ana’s expression hardened, and when she spoke, Angela could hear the growl in her words.

“Fareeha’s boon allows her to be with whomever she wishes,” she said through bared teeth.

“But it does not put her above the law!” Fletcha screeched. “And this wretch you seem so fond of has not won or earned anything. When the Proving ends and she’s lost, we will remove her foul presence from Mother’s Heart immediately! Has your misguided daughter considered that? Fox or not, communications with outcasts is forbidden, and this childish rebellion - this brave nonsense and this unhealthy infatuation - has to cease before it gets worst!

Around her, the vixens began to stir and growl. Ris had entirely tensed up, held back only by Viate’s hand on an arm. Lase and Qira were both growling, and Frea bared fangs at the matriarchs. Letly remained the only one with a straight, stoic face, but Angela noticed that even she was gripping the wooden utensils rather hard.

Beside her, Fareeha had stopped purring, growing more tense with every passing word until finally, she could take it no more and abruptly stood, growling so menacingly Fletcha took an abrupt step back.

“You don’t talk to Angela like that!” Fareeha snapped. “I have broken no law by being with her. It was my boon to choose. Or do you only honor the laws when it’s convenient for you?”

Matriarch Fletcha looked visibly stricken, and her two supporting matriarchs, aghast. Standing before a table of enraged foxes, good sense finally seemed to register to the high matriarch. She pursed lips, looking extremely displeased, and even cast Ana a dark glare, but the war-chief didn’t jump to her defense.

“As you say, Fareeha,” the old woman said, eyes narrowed. “I just hope you remember: come tomorrow, your Angela will be an outcast again, and you will still be here, surrounded by vixens that want you, whom you deny. If you’re happy to warm an outcast’s bed, I can’t begin to wonder why you wouldn’t extend the same courtesy to our Nora vixens. Ris’ heat is due to arrive in a fortnight,” she said, gesturing, causing the already aggravated Ris to pale. “Perhaps you’d consider the needs of the tribe for once.”

Fareeha snarled, and then stopped abruptly, distracted by the screeching of metal followed by the sound of a solid crash into wood.

It was quiet, a fair distance away, but every fox tensed at the sound that none of the matriarchs or villagers could hear.

“Hmph. Remembering your place?” Matriarch Fletcha taunted. “Or finally feeling some guilt, preferably?”

Ana stood from the bench suddenly, expression deathly serious.

“Braves! To the front gates!” she summoned, identifying the location quickly. “Everybody else, barricade yourselves into your homes!”

At once, the four tables of vixens stood and reached for their weapons in unison, Angela among them. She shared a look with Fareeha, whose angry expression had been replaced with a serious, battle-ready one.

Fareeha nodded to her.

“Follow the war-chief’s lead,” the tod told her, and Angela nodded back. Though she was trained in combat and had fought dozens, probably hundreds, of machines before, Angela didn’t have the experience of working with others in combat.

Moving quickly after Ana, who had the vixens split down two different paths, Angela followed Fareeha down the descending path to the front gate, passing cabins with merchants and terrified women and men.

As they drew closer to the gates, the crashing noises became louder and more evident than ever. Villagers fled up the mountain as a final, thunderous boom marked the collapse of the front gate. When they finally reached the triangular, spacious entrance to behold it, Angela’s eyes widened.

The large, wooden wall was in shambles, with logs rolling down the sloping hill at the entrance, actually smacking into a couple of the sawtooths that were rampaging into the village. And a rampage it was. Dozens of the beastly machines had already charged into the village, trampling villagers with no heed as they went, and the line of machines behind them seemed endless.

Angela recognized the sawtooths from having identified them with her focus before, but these machines were different than the ones she knew. They were enraged and violent, even by sawtooth standards, as though something had driven them mad.

Activating her focus to try to identify the cause, the first word Angela saw was: corrupted.

She frowned, but before she could analyze the readings, a second type of machine barreled in through the broken gates, this one even more monstrous.

Standing on four spindly legs, it was much taller than any of the sawtooths, and its plating, black and slightly worn, was a sort Angela had never seen before. With a chunky metal body and a protruding nose and tail, it skittered across the ground like an insect, but with the speed of a frantic turkey running for its life. With one sweep of its mighty tail, it picked up one of the rolling logs and chucked it at an escaping Nora couple as if it were a pebble.

Angela’s focus filled with readings the moment she scanned the strange machine.

“What is that?” one of her fellow vixens asked.

“These sawtooths are stronger, tougher than normal,” Frea warned, knocked to the ground by one who pounced on her. She got a spear up in enough time to catch its two front paws, pushing up at the heavy beast to keep it at bay. Several other vixens rushed to Frea’s aid and stabbed the machine in its core from several sides, shutting it down.

“Letly, take your unit and bring that monster down. The rest of you, get rid of these sawtooths and aid the villagers,” Ana ordered, dipping a quiver’s worth of arrows into some blaze as she started for the destroyed wall. “I’m going to take out the bridge.”

“Careful, Mama,” Fareeha whispered, bow already drawn and strung to fire at the strange machine.

“That thing is controlling the sawtooths somehow. Aim for the launchers on its back, they’re weapons,” Angela advised, stringing her own bow. “The tail can be removed if we get close enough, and the machine will eventually overheat if it’s overtaxed. That’s when its core will become exposed, hitting it should greatly damage the machine.”

“Okay,” Fareeha said, loosing the first arrow, which struck a projectile just after it had fired from the pack on the strange machine’s back, setting off the bomb just a few feet from it.

“Fareeha, Qira, Lase, Ris, draw its attention with me,” Letly ordered, pulling a spear off her back. “The rest of you, keep at a range and take off those launchers. Where will the core come out from, Angela?”

“Between its eyes,” Angela reported.

“You heard her,” Letly said, waving forward the vixens. “When it overheats, focus fire on the core. Angela, stay with Viate and Frea.”

Fareeha slung the bow back across her back in favor of a rattler, a weapon Angela had only ever seen before, never used. Fareeha’s seemed different from others that she had seen, but the tod moved too quickly for her to scan it. In a blink, the foxes were racing down the slope directly into the fray where the machines terrorized fleeing villagers and trampled other braves.

Angela kept an eye on Fareeha and fired arrows as rapidly as she could. Together, with the help of the foxes who had charged in, Angela and the archers cleared a way through the sawtooths for Letly, Fareeha, Qira, Lase, and Ris to reach the strange machine.

As Fareeha and the vixens advanced, sawtooths began to gain ground on their location. Viate waved them back, signalling them to fall back and climb up to a rooftop, which provided better view and range.

Though she had a spot of relative safety, Angela winced upon seeing the carnage and destruction taking place below her. The sawtooths had thinned down a little, thanks to the foxes’ efforts, but the mayhem was far from over, and many villagers lay dead or suffering far below. Worse, she was running low on arrows, and the assistance she could provide from the rooftop seemed meager when Letly’s unit was dashing in close quarters to the strange machine.

Angela strung more arrows, breath catching when Ris slid beneath the machine, stabbing at its underbelly on the way. The spear ripped into the machine and got stuck, and as the machine reached for the vixen with its tail, Fareeha unleashed a barrage of fire bombs at its face from the customized rattler she held.

The sight made her smile, but only for a moment, because as the machine cowered away from the explosions, it nearly speared Ris through the stomach with its foot. It would have, had it not been for both Qira and Lase who charged into the monster’s bulky metal side, toppling it to its side before it could bring its sharp foot down.

Fareeha immediately blasted it again, and together, Lase and Qira grabbed the metal monster’s tail. With a tremendous haul, and growling ferociously, they ripped the limb from the monster’s body in a spray of sparks and wires. Letly took the newly presented opportunity to shove a second spear deep into its body, and finally, the machine began to putter.

Ris rolled up to a stand and grabbed the spear protruding from the strange machine’s gut as the red eyes in front of its face parted, revealing a long, cylindrical core. Ris stomped to the head of the beast, and with a growl that Angela could hear even from the rooftop, she rammed the spear into the sensitive core.

The small victory they had experienced was cut short, however, by the sudden, ear-shattering ring of a rapidly firing weapon.

Angela cringed as her eardrums instantly throbbed. Beside her, Viate and Frea flinched back as well, but as the battlefield clearly showed, they had little time to squander. As the strange machine fell, men in masks began flooding the village in its place, and as Angela looked their way to scan them, she identified the source of the sound.

Held by a few of the invaders, the men lugged heavy weapons into Mother’s Heart, weapons that her focus identified as machine guns, weapons that fired little pellets of metal - bullets, claimed her focus - at incredible speeds, and they were deadly.

Led by a dark-haired archer at the front of the line, the man fired an arrow into one of the braves and hollered to his company, who swept in from behind him like a horde, machine guns already firing.

In seconds, the surprising onslaught ripped through the courtyard like a blazing flash through the night, and Ris, standing in front of the strange machine, went down under a hail of bullets.

Viate’s eyes bulged.

“Ris!” she shouted, horrified as Letly, Lase, Qira, and Fareeha took shelter behind the massive metal carcass. Fareeha slid to the far end of the carcass and stretched out a hand, grabbing Ris by the collar and dragged the vixen back behind the carcass with them. She cringed, features tightening up when a few metal pellets struck her arm, but still managed to pull Ris back behind shelter.

“Stay up here,” Viate said, and before Angela could get so much as a get a word out, the vixen slingshotted an electric bomb at the central gunner and hopped from the roof.

Frantically, Angela drew her arrows to cover her fellow vixen as Viate raced across the field to Ris. By the time Viate made it, Angela reached back to realize that she had run out of arrows.

Down below, one of the gunners turned his attention on them and fired upwards at the roof.

“Get down!” Frea warned, tackling her back to the opposite slope of the roof where they had a better angle of protection. “Shit,” Frea cursed, also running out of arrows. She pulled free a sling from her belt and unfastened a fire bomb from the waist, daring to peek over the ridge of the roof for their enemies.

Angela would have joined her fellow, had she any bombs to throw. She turned her head, scanning with her focus and caught sight of a huddled group of children behind one of the cabins opposite their side of the road. On the other end of the house, a sawtooth lurked, making its way around the cabin.

“Frea, the children!” Angela yelped in realization.

“What?” Frea asked, but there was no time to stop and explain. The sawtooth would be on the children in seconds, and Angela had no arrows left to distract it with. Frea’s explosive bombs would explode too close.

Making a split second decision, Angela threw down the useless bow and yelled, “Cover me!” as she jumped off the back side of the roof. There was no time to wait for the gunners to turn away, so she ran for it as fast as she could.

The gunners noticed her late and turned their weapons onto her, but by the time they swung around the heavy weapons, Angela was on the other side of the cabin near the children, most of whom looked up at her with big, frightened eyes.

Angela held a finger to her lips and drew her spear from her back, and then crept to the edge of the cabin quickly. Seconds after her arrival, a hulking sawtooth maw turned around the corner and Angela rammed her spear into its gaping mouth.

The sawtooth howled, rearing back onto its hind legs as Angela ripped the spear from its head. Wires and mesh twisted and sparks flew, but where that would have killed a normal sawtooth, this one was still standing. Pulling the spear back with all her strength, she thrust it into the gut of the sawtooth as the beast dropped upon her.

It was a good, solid strike that had her spear sinking into a soft spot of metal and mesh, sliding all the way to its innards, but it still wasn’t enough.

Angela yelped as the heavy machine dropped upon her with its full weight, crushing her beneath its underbelly. She shoved at it, straining, and the sawtooth stood to swipe at her with a knife-sharp paw that cut into her side and smacked her so hard, Angela felt a few ribs snap and break. She gasped, reaching up and grabbed the metal arm as her focus identified a weak spot on its underbelly. Wrenching that arm up with every ounce of strength she could muster, Angela tore the machine’s arm right off.

The sawtooth roared, rearing back on its hind legs again. Completely missing a front paw with a giant hole in its head and the spear coming out of the socket where an arm should be, it was hard to believe the monster was still functioning, but it was.

Rolling to her left, Angela cringed as her side flared up in pain. The ground shook as the monster came down on its front paw and turned on her. Angela struggled to pull herself up into a sitting position, and she pulled a long dagger from her belt, the only remaining she had left.

The sawtooth rumbled and jumped for her. There was no time to roll away again, and the sawtooth came down heavily with the front paw barely missing her leg, maw wide open. Metal teeth sunk through her leather armor deep into her arm, breaking bone. Angela bit back a scream and, with her able hand, rammed the dagger into a soft spot on its throat, driving the blade all the way into its skull.

Finally, its red eyes flickered, and then went out.

Cringing, Angela reached for the teeth that had sunk all the way through her arm and out the other side. She gripped the first fang, and, grimacing, she cautiously pried the machine’s teeth off her arm. Dragging herself away from the carcass, she pulled her dagger from its cranium and gripped the weapon.

“Angela!” one of the children yelled, panicked, and Angela recognized the boy from yesterday who had asked too many questions. He and the other children raced over, nothing short of terror on their faces.

“I’m fine,” Angela said, though she could taste blood in her mouth just to say the words. Her armor was soaked and nausea threatened to take her, but Angela fought it. “Are you all okay? Is anyone hurt?”

“We’re okay,” the boy replied, “we were hiding, but Soeli saw her parents in trouble and ran to them.”

“What?” Angela barked, scanning the children and realizing the little kit was not with them.

“I told her not to, but she’s fast,” the little boy said, looking at her with wide eyes. “You’re bleeding a lot.”

Angela searched their surroundings with her focus, finding the bulk of the fight still taking place at the entrance. She was relieved to find Fareeha’s outline still up and active at the gates of the village, and Angela was even more relieved to see Ris up on her feet again with Viate close by. All of her friends were still fighting, she was happy to see. She checked the roof for Frea, but the vixen had disappeared to assist the effort at the gates, probably having run out of ranged bombs to throw.

Though the fight was still concentrated below, small pockets of masked men and sawtooths were making their way further up into the town. No one had noticed them yet, but they would shortly if the children remained where they were.

And then Angela spotted Soeli, and her heart immediately sped. The kit was running to a couple that Angela’s focus identified as her parents, but coming straight up their pathway, two men had moved up the road. One of them had a machine gun.

“Let’s go,” Angela said, forcing herself to stand despite the excruciating pain and blurry vision that came with it. Making sure that their path was clear, she quickly led the children up a couple of cabins and opened the back door of an empty one. “Stay in here and lock the door,” she ordered the children, “don’t open the door, no matter what, and keep quiet.”

Shuffling her herd of children inside, Angela shut the door behind them and wheezed, drawing in a great, deep breath as she cradled her injured arm. She turned to track Soeli again and found the two men mere twenty yards away from Soeli and the parents.

Moving her hand from her arm to her openly bleeding side, Angela sprinted for the little kit as fast as she could.

“Please,” Soeli’s mother begged the gunman, both parents shielding Soeli behind them. “Please, just don’t hurt our little girl!”

Angela pumped her tired legs harder than possible, even for a fox, running so hard and fast, she couldn’t even breathe.

With a casual flick of his hand, the archer commander signaled the gunman, and the gunman leveled his weapon at the hapless parents. The father jumped for him as the machine gun opened fire, and the mother turned to grip Soeli in shaking arms.

Bullets fired from the horrible machine, ripping straight through flesh and bone, and Angela dove for the mother and daughter, crashing into them so hard, it ripped her breath away. She wrapped her body around both figures, carrying them with her as bullets flew faster than the human body could go. They pelted into her like knives, and Angela screamed as the hot sensation of burning up in a fire encompassed her whole body. She didn’t register hitting the ground, nor knew the fate of the two she clutched so desperately in her arms.

Darkness had engulfed her vision, but as the rapid gunshots stopped, Angela faintly heard the sound of her name.

“Reinhardt?” she tried to mumble, but when her lips parted, all Angela could taste was blood, and then her mind went black.

* * *

When Angela came to, it was to the smell of burning salvebrush root. Her injuries had been grave, she realized, if the Nora had to put her under the effects of salvebrush root. While the medicinal plant’s berries posed no use for the carnivorous foxes, its roots, when burned, would put a fox to sleep and allow her body to heal even faster, a rate that was already impressive without the salvebrush root. Though her difficult, dangerous training never led to it, Reinhardt had planted salvebrush outside their home just in case.

Reinhardt, she thought, remembering catching a glimpse of him before she lost consciousness. She remembered the strange machine and the horde of sawtooths it led into Mother’s Heart, and then the battle that followed, against the machines and a group of men wearing masks, led by an archer. She remembered abandoning the fight to help get the children to safety, and that Soeli had gone missing, seeking her parents.

Soeli, and the kit’s parents: the last of her memory before her body finally succumbed to the toll of her bleeding wounds and broken bones.

Looking around, Angela found that she was in a lodge, smaller than the one the vixens had stayed in at Mother’s Heart, but still spacious and lined with several beds. On the bed next to her, the only other one occupied, was Soeli, the sleeping kit bundled up in blankets. Her own bed, Angela noticed, was the closest to the fireplace, where Fareeha stood with her back to her, the tod throwing more bundles of salvebrush root into the flames.

“Fareeha,” she rasped out, her voice hoarse, but she didn’t want the tod putting the rest of the salvebrush to waste.

At the sound of her voice, Fareeha dropped the next bundle she was about to burn.

“Angela!” the tod exclaimed, rushing to her side.

“Shh,” Angela hushed as she let Fareeha hug her carefully. Her injuries may have fully healed, but her body ached. “You may wake Soeli,” she whispered to the tod, glancing at the kit, relieved when she saw that the little one slept on.

“She just fell asleep after staying up all night,” Fareeha said, also glancing at the kit. “She’s been waiting for you to wake up, and she was so sure you were going to last night, didn’t want to miss it.”

“Oh,” Angela murmured, her eyes softening at the sleeping kit. “Should we wake her?”

“No, let her sleep, she can use the rest,” Fareeha said, standing up. “I’ll go get you some food. I don’t have anything fresh, but I have turkey and boar jerky on hand in case you woke up outside of mealtimes.”

Before Angela could respond, her stomach beat her to it, growling so loudly she was afraid it would wake Soeli.

“How long have I been out?” she asked, her hunger suddenly the only other thing she could think about.

“A week,” Fareeha told her, not once breaking eye contact with her. “We’ll talk more when I get back, Angela. You need to eat.”

Angela nodded, repeating Fareeha’s response in her head as the tod left the room. Fareeha returned quickly as she had promised, and the distress Angela was starting to feel turned back to hunger. She accepted the large platter the tod offered her, mumbling a barely audible, “Thank you,” before devouring every strip of turkey and boar in what felt like seconds.

Her body protested as her hunger persisted, complaining that she had barely eaten anything, and she was about to ask for another helping when she realized that Fareeha had set three more platters in front of her. Angela gazed adoringly at Fareeha, even more when the tod stood and said, “I’m going to cook you something. Come find me if you get hungry before I’m done, okay?”

Her mouth full and both her hands already reaching for more jerky, Angela could only nod, grateful that she had such a thoughtful, caring, wonderful tod looking after her.

* * *

Her hunger sated and her mind cleared after countless servings of a freshly made meal, Angela sat on her bed, cuddling with Fareeha.

“Thank you for taking care of me,” she whispered as she kissed Fareeha on the cheek, glad to finally be able to properly express herself.

“My pleasure,” Fareeha whispered back, the praise and the affection making her purr.

Angela smiled, pleased with the tod’s reaction, but she instantly sobered when her gaze fell on Soeli again. She hadn’t noticed before, but it seemed that Ra had been next to the kit the whole time, with the little one clutching the doting, gentle beast like a lifeline.

“Her parents…?” she asked Fareeha, whose purring stopped, and already she knew the answer.

“They didn’t survive their wounds,” Fareeha said, shaking her head. “You did everything you could, Angela, risked your life to save theirs. You acted like a brave, like a fox, and you didn’t need the Proving to show it.”

“The Proving,” Angela murmured, her eyes on the sleeping kit on the next bed. “That seems so insignificant now, after what’s happened. Reinhardt, I saw him before I passed out. Is he…?”

“He’s fine, a little battered, but fine,” Fareeha assured her. “He’s recovered enough from his injuries that he was able to go home. My mama insisted that he stay here in Mother’s Watch with us, but he refused, the stubborn old man, saying he wouldn’t dare break more laws by soiling the All-Mother’s holy ground with his presence.”

As the tod snorted, Angela cracked a smile.

“That sounds like him,” she remarked, still watching the little bundle on the bed.

Ra, seeming to sense her gaze, looked at her, as if to assure her that the kit was safe in her stead. She turned back to Fareeha, noticing for the first time that the tod sported new scars. She touched them, jagged ones from the maw of a sawtooth, entry points of the broad arrowheads used by the butchers that attacked the village, and lastly, scars from the barbed tail and the spike projectiles of the strange machine.

Angela realized, in her exploration of Fareeha’s new scars, that she sported many new ones of her own. Her forearms alone were peppered with scars from the bullets, and the arm that had been mangled had telling scars from the sawtooth’s maw.

“Healer Mista had to dig a lot of those small, metal pellets out of you,” Fareeha said, guessing what she was thinking. “She had to do it fast, in one go, because your wounds would have closed up.”

“And she would have had to cut me open again to get them out if she hadn’t,” Angela concluded, touching her forearms, her noticeably skinny forearms, she noted. “I didn’t realize I’ve gotten so... small,” she mumbled, her brows furrowing. “It’s like I’m looking at and touching someone else’s arms.”

“You’ll be okay, just need to make up for not eating for a week,” Fareeha told her, the tod’s hands covering her own, and Angela stared at how much smaller she felt in the hold of a healthy fox.

“A week,” she repeated, still a little incredulous. “What happened after I passed out, Fareeha? By your lack of urgency, I can tell the Nora succeeded in repelling the attack. Not without costs, though, so I hesitate to say the Nora won, but it seems things are relatively calm.”

“They are, relatively,” Fareeha said as the two of them settled back into a cuddling position. “Mother’s Heart is in ruins, and it will be abandoned once we’ve found all our dead and burn theirs with their machines. At the moment, it’s a graveyard for the men and machines that razed Mother’s Heart. The machines, we took down, and the men, we hunted down across the Sacred Lands, to the last man.

The gates of the Embrace have been torn down, destroyed by machines like the one we fought, and like it, those others also commanded a horde of sawtooths. The men who attacked us? They were Carjan, even though their leader refused to admit this. He insisted he and his men were Eclipse, as though it can’t possibly lead back to the Carja. Even without his futile attempt at misdirection, I’ve fought enough Carjans to know when I meet one in battle, as have my mama and the vixens. The Nora are calling for war, that the envoy sent by the Sun Queen was nothing more than a distraction. The Carja struck the night of the festival, after their envoy left the Embrace. There came no warning because our scouts and our sentinels have been dead overnight. And it’s all too convenient that the attack happened on the one day where all the foxes were gathered in the Embrace, the one day when the Sacred Lands wasn’t under our guard. The day of the Proving had only been privy to the Nora until the matriarchs invited the envoy.”

“Do you believe that?” Angela asked, studying Fareeha’s face and seeing doubt in the tod’s eyes.

“I don’t know,” Fareeha said, ever honest, “but I do believe there is more to this, and that it has something to do with you, Angela.”

“Me?”

Instead of speaking, Fareeha instead reaches into her pocket and reveals a focus.

“The Carjan leader was wearing this,” the tod said, handing her the device. “The man never spoke, at least not about things that matter, but with you, the device will.”

Angela took the enemy focus from Fareeha, feeling the weight of the tod’s faith in her with it. She picked up her own focus that was on a table beside the bed and placed it against her temple. Activating it, her focus’ interface opened, instantly recognizing the other focus and prompting its own interface to open, its lights orange.

The image of a man wearing red robes appeared, the focus labeling him as High Priest Sojiro of the Shadow Carja.

_“Hanzo, my son,” he began, “Torbjörn has confirmed the presence of our target in the Nora village. I'm having the ancient machines converge to you. This mission takes priority. Eliminate the target and any savages who dare to get in your way. Do not fail me, Hanzo.”_

The man’s image disappeared, replaced with a landscape Angela easily recognized as the Embrace, a red mark on Mother’s Heart. She stood and walked over to the projected map, hovering her hand over Mother’s Heart and zoomed in on the image, finding another hidden inside. She motioned with her hand, separating it from the landscape and enlarging it, and she gasped when she saw herself.

_“Where did you get the device?”_ the image of her asked, her exact words she spoke to Torbjörn when she met him.

Next to her likeness, another image appeared, someone whose features were strikingly similar to her own, save for the shoulder-length hair and the otherworldly-looking clothes.

_“I refuse to the part of this, Jack, and you can’t keep me in here,”_ the vixen - no, the woman, her teeth weren’t sharp - said, speaking with an unusual inflection in her voice.  _"I should be out there, like Gabriel, with Gabriel. Like you should be."_

Numbers flashed between her image and the woman’s: 94.97%. Above the numbers was the one word: eliminate.

Angela stared at her mirror, and then at the woman who might as well be another reflection.

“They were after me,” she said, unable to look away from the woman, “because of her.”

“What?” Fareeha asked, the tod having patiently waited as she processed everything she had seen.

Angela approached Fareeha, removing her focus and making the tod wear it. She guided Fareeha on how to navigate the focus’ interface, and the tod, despite seeing a language she didn’t understand, followed her instructions perfectly. Angela could tell that Fareeha saw the woman when the tod went wide-eyed and stared at her for a long moment, and when all was done, Fareeha handed her back her focus and spoke first.

“That woman…” the tod began, still staring at her, “she looks just like you.”

“Whoever she is,” Angela said, the word mother at the tip of her tongue, “she’s the reason these Carjans attacked. They meant to kill me, all this happened because of me, because of whatever connection I have to her. We have to tell your mother, Fareeha.”

“Not yet,” the tod decided. “First, we see Hanzo. Maybe he’ll have something to say now that we know his name, among other things.”

“He’s alive?” Angela blurted out, surprised.

“With no help from the Nora, who demand his execution, nor from the man himself, who keeps angering the vixens who guard him,” Fareeha grumbled, looking peeved.

“Why did Ana decide to keep him alive?” Angela asked.

“She didn’t,” Fareeha said. “I mean, it’s on her order, but at my request. I felt it would be useful to keep him alive since he had a device like yours, a focus. Even when he refused to give us any information, I knew you would find something on his focus.”

“Again you and Ana risk so much by trusting me,” Angela murmured, placing a hand on Fareeha’s face.

“A trust well-placed,” the tod declared, sincere and serious. “Come, let’s go see the man.”

* * *

Located a good trek outside Mother’s Watch, the prison holding Hanzo was makeshift, its crude construction obviously done in haste. Not a surprise, Angela found, for the Nora never took prisoners, not until now, and the stir it caused had a lot to do with how easily Fareeha snuck her out of the village.

_Clever tod,_ she thought, glancing Fareeha’s way before turning her attention to the vixens standing guard at the prison.

“Angela, you’re awake!” Qira exclaimed, dropping her aggressive stance and rushing over to them.

“It’s good to see you’re well, Qira,” Angela greeted the other vixen back, allowing the concerned fox to look her over. “How is Lase?” she asked, having heard from Fareeha that Qira’s twin had been wounded from the fight.

“Oh, she’s also well. Letly is here with me instead because Lase would sooner kill the prisoner than guard him,” Qira said, motioning at her fellow guard. “So, as you can tell, she’s feeling quite well, better than you have been, Angela. Better than you are now, even. I can see you’ve recovered enough that the salvebrush root no longer puts you to sleep, but look at you, you’re so small! You should be back in the lodge, eating your weight in meat.”

“She will be, Qira,” Fareeha promised, and Qira regarded the tod in approval.

“And why is it you’re both here?” Letly asked, approaching them. “Rather, why is the war-chief not with you? She doesn’t know Angela’s woken up, does she, Fareeha?”

Though the vixen spoke in a gentle tone, the chiding nature of the question almost had Fareeha flinching. The tod was quick to recover, meeting Letly’s gaze in challenge, but the moment wasn’t lost on Angela.

“Mama will know after Angela and I talk to the prisoner,” the tod proclaimed, nearly growling. “She found out something from the device, and I know she can do the same with the prisoner.”

“Fareeha,” Letly said, her voice even softer so as not to antagonize the agitated tod. “I supported the decision to keep the prisoner alive if it meant he may be of use to Angela. I still do, but I feel the war-chief should be present for this.”

“Mama’s already getting enough trouble from the matriarchs,” Fareeha replied, much less confrontational. “This is to spare her from more.”

“We know the reason of the attack, but not why,” Angela said, instinctively placing herself in front of Fareeha as she faced off with the two vixens. “There’s a chance this man will tell us, and to the matriarchs, his word has more weight than mine, especially since my claims are due to my focus.”

“After what you have done for the tribe using that device, this shouldn’t even be a cause for concern,” Qira remarked, shaking her head.

“But it is, as is her status, the absurdity of it all,” Letly said, sighing and then returning to her post. “Jesse,” the vixen called, rapping on the door, “move the Carjan to a seat. Angela and Fareeha wish to speak with him.”

“Angela’s awake? That’s wonderful!” came Jesse’s muffled, excited response from the other side. “Give me a minute, I’ll have our grumpy Carjan ready for visitors soon as I can.”

“Jesse wasn’t supposed to watch the Carjan today,” Fareeha said, looking confused.

“Apart from us,” Qira began, pausing to look between them to indicate she meant foxes, “Jesse is the only one who backs the war-chief’s decision to keep the Carjan alive.”

“And since the the man is as eager to die as we are to kill him, he has to be watched,” Letly added, glaring at the door. “After I almost obliged him yesterday, the war-chief felt it was best to have me out here and Jesse in there.”

Though Angela did not know her well, Letly seemed to be the most level-headed vixen out of all the others, and while her own temper had yet to be fully tested, her instincts had taken over her before. As the door opened and she followed Fareeha inside, Angela worried she herself may kill him before they get the information they needed.

* * *

“Angela!” Jesse greeted upon seeing them. “Nice to see you up and about. In a hurry to question our guest here, are you?”

“It’s good to see you, Jesse,” Angela greeted back, but her attention was on the prisoner as she spoke.

The man was seated on a chair, as Letly had ordered, his hands bound behind his back, no doubt kept that way at all times. He had endured recent injuries - his left eye swollen shut, and his neck badly bruised, with deep gashes surrounding it - and Angela deduced it had been Letly’s doing, that the vixen must have lifted the man right off the chair and nearly choked him to death.

In addition, the man sported week old injuries, one of which appeared to be a broken leg on the mend. His attire was nearly as bare as the box of a room he was being kept in, and while his medium-length hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in days, it didn’t seem like the Nora were starving him.

He was looking at her, she noticed, and then looking past her, at Fareeha, and his expression went from disinterest to smug.

“I see I’m finally graced with the presence of the savage who felled me in battle,” he drawled, and then barked out a short laugh. “Have your females finally given you permission? Strange you defer to them, when you’re stronger, but only in body, is it?”

“We’re here to ask you questions, Hanzo, not answer yours,” Angela snapped, pleased when he was unable to hide the shock on his face when she said his name.

“So you know my name,” Hanzo said, his sneer still in place. “Impressive, especially for a savage. No, not a savage, that would mean you’re human. Addled with ignorance and barbarism, but human. You, you two, you’re beasts, wild animals like your namesake.”

“And this ‘wild animal’,” Fareeha said of herself, “bested you in battle, when you had at your side your men and your machines.”

“You did,” Hanzo freely admitted, “but had you any sense of honor, you would have dealt me a killing blow, not had me stuffed in this barren hole with a one-armed maid.”

“Hey---” Jesse started protest, but was cut off with Fareeha’s growl.

“We owe you nothing, least of all the peace of death.”

When the tod’s growling grew louder, Angela grabbed Fareeha’s hand. Fareeha met her eyes, and during their unspoken conversation, Angela could see Hanzo looking smug about their exchange.

“If you won’t speak, Hanzo, then I shall,” she said as stepped in front of Fareeha, wanting Hanzo’s attention on her and not on the tod. “We know you were sent here by your father, High Priest Sojiro of the Shadow Carja, the leader of the Eclipse, and that your mission was to kill me. Tell me why, because then you’ll have no use to the Nora, and you can have the death you’ve been begging for.”

“You believe I’ll betray my father for that?” Hanzo spat, face twisting in disgust. “You base, simple animal, you might as well just kill me now. Whatever you wish to know is not only beyond your reach, but beyond your understanding. That your tribe allows you to make as humans do, even be foolish enough to have one of you lead, is telling. You are a disease, you are the Derangement in flesh, meant for nothing more than war. Perhaps if we offered more of you to the Sun, He would have been appeased. The ones we delivered to the Sun Ring certainly fought with a ferocity only matched by deranged machines.”

With a vicious snarl, Fareeha lunged at Hanzo, and Angela, despite Jesse’s plea, made no attempt to stop the tod. She watched, unflinching, as Fareeha leveled Hanzo with a punch and sent him crashing to the ground, the chair splitting under him. He grunted, his hands taking the brunt of the fall, and then wheezed when Fareeha picked him up by the neck and held him in the air.

“You call it sacrifice when you do it in the name of your god, when all it is is murder, massacre,” Angela said, unable to hide the growl from her own voice as she glared at Hanzo. “You speak of honor like you have it, like you deserve it, and now you use your faith to paint your crimes as something holy and blessed, so you would not have to live with the truth that you and those like you - the Shadow Carja, the Eclipse, whatever it is you call yourselves, you who continue to follow the Mad King beyond his death - you chose to kill the innocent, and all you have to show for it is the blood on your hands and you revel in it. Call the Nora savages, if you will, Fareeha and I, animals, beasts, but you, Hanzo, and those like you and your father? You’re monsters.”

“I should finish what Letly started,” Fareeha growled in agreement, sharp teeth bared at the man struggling feebly in her iron grip.

“Angela,” Jesse pleaded again, clutching her arm, “this is not right, no better than what they’ve done.”

Angela looked at Jesse, and then back at Fareeha, waiting long enough to have the good-hearted merchant worrying again.

“Fareeha,” she finally said, and the tod obeyed, dropping Hanzo back on the ground.

As Jesse tended to Hanzo, the prisoner desperately gulping in air in between harsh coughs, Angela and Fareeha’s eyes met.

It was time to talk to Ana, they both knew.

* * *

After giving Ana the last instructions on how to navigate the focus like she had done with Fareeha, Angela sat next to the tod, the two of them waiting for the war-chief to finish going through the information found in Hanzo’s focus.

They had returned to the lodge to find the war-chief there, checking on Soeli. After Fareeha got a mild scolding from the war-chief - in another room, the kitchen, so as not to wake the still sleeping kit - Angela offered to show Ana what she had seen with her focus. Ana proved to be just as intuitive as Fareeha, lending hope that the war-chief would react to the truth as well as her daughter did.

When Ana took off Angela’s focus and handed it back to her along with Hanzo’s, the war-chief stared at her, and then, for a moment, seemed to stare right past her.

“Eat your food,” Ana suddenly barked, startling both her and Fareeha.

Angela looked down at her forgotten plate, her traitorous stomach rumbling in agreement with the war-chief. She resumed eating in earnest, though she kept her eyes on Ana, eager to know the war-chief’s response.

“So,” Ana began, but only after Angela had gone through her current plate and was given another by Fareeha, “it seems we were attacked by the Carja, but not the Carjans we suspected. Even though Mad King Talon started to throw his own people in that Sun Ring of his, not every Carja was happy to see him dead, a number that grew when he was succeeded by his daughter. They’ve broken off from the Carja we know, calling themselves the Shadow Carja and claiming to be the real Carja while declaring that Sun Queen Hana is a false ruler. I wouldn’t put it past the Shadow Carja to undermine the Sun Queen’s relations with the Nora, but if all they care about is Angela, well… this may not have anything to do with the Carja at all.”

“What about this Eclipse nonsense, Mama?” Fareeha asked, mostly because Angela was thoroughly enjoying her boar steak. “Even before Angela woke up, it was the one thing Hanzo wouldn’t shut up about, that he was Eclipse, not Carja. Angela says that priest is Shadow Carja, and he’s their leader.”

“I’ve never heard of Eclipse,” Ana admitted, and then snorted, “but if the Shadow Carja think they’re misleading anyone with that name, they need to be more imaginative. If the Shadow Carja and the Eclipse aren’t one in the same, then the Eclipse is definitely a sect of the Shadow Carja. They’d have to be for Hanzo to be taking orders from High Priest Sojiro, whom I heard from Zarya practically leads the Shadow Carja. In the shadows, of course, you know how they are.”

Despite the weighty talk, Fareeha couldn’t stifle her snicker at the joke, which brought a proud, smug grin to Ana’s face. Angela let the mother and daughter have the small, short moment, knowing any like it were rare and fleeting between them.

“And the Eclipse,” Ana went on, her voice again stern and her expression serious, “along with their intent to kill you, Angela, have command over these ancient machines, that, in turn, command other machines.”

“By corrupting them, yes. Through what means, I can't say. Hanzo won’t speak, so we won’t find out from him,” Angela said, feeling full enough to not ask Fareeha for another steak just yet, “but we have another link in Torbjörn. He has a focus, and it’s through his focus that Sojiro saw me. Hanzo may not be the only other Eclipse with a focus, and they can somehow communicate through great distances with it. If they know Hanzo failed, the attack on Mother’s Heart won’t be the last.”

“Angela,” Fareeha called, frowning, “Torbjörn’s back in Meridian. If you want to find him, you’ll have to leave the Sacred Lands.”

“Then I go from outcast to exile,” Angela decided. “Better that than to stay here and risk more lives. I’m going to find Torbjörn, and he’s going to tell me why he brought these butchers to Mother’s Heart.”

Before Fareeha could respond, Ana spoke up.

“And maybe tell you who that woman is?” the war-chief guessed.

“Do you know who she is?” Angela asked, and then she hesitated before finally asking the question that had been on her mind since she had seen the woman. “Is… is she my mother?”

“I don’t know,” Ana said, and the war-chief’s uncertainty carved a hole in her chest, left her with a hollow feeling that, even if she had won the Proving, she still wouldn’t have known who her mother was.

“Mama?” Fareeha prompted when Ana was quiet for too long.

“Angela,” Ana finally went on, “when I found you, there was no a woman or vixen nearby, only a machine.”

“What?” Angela blurted, recoiling like the war-chief had struck her.

“What are you talking about, Mama?” Fareeha asked, confused.

Ana looked at Angela a moment longer, and then sighed and stood up.

“It’s better if I show you. Follow.”

* * *

There was no mistaking where Ana was leading them: to All-Mother Mountain, where the Nora believe their Goddess resided, and access was a privilege only matriarchs have. Ana, however, didn’t seem deterred by this sacred law, the war-chief’s steps towards the entrance sure and purposeful.

“What is the meaning of this, Ana!” a matriarch, none other than Fletcha, demanded, trailing after them.

Ana stopped, but only because more matriarchs came hobbling, both from inside and outside the doorway, and blocked their path. The line of angry but frail old women posed no threat to the war-chief, even less with the vixen and tod at her side, but they stood their ground, posturing as they howled their protests and ire, all directed at Angela.

“Move,” Ana said calmly, taking a step forward and making the matriarchs take a step back. “I am taking Angela inside the mountain. The fate of the Nora hinges on what she may find. It would serve you better to pray she finds something, for the sake of the tribe.”

“You told her where she came from?” Matriarch Fletcha spat, face wrinkled in rage. “You were not in any place to speak, Ana! The outcast may have helped in the battle at Mother’s Heart, but she won no Proving, she has earned no boon!”

“She needs no Proving,” Ana declared, eliciting horrified gasps. “Without Angela, we would have lost all the children. Without Angela, we would not have put down those machines soon enough. Without Angela, we would have lost more than Mother’s Heart. She has won and earned her answers, answers we never had any right to deny her.”

“She’s already gotten more than any outcast deserves, and she certainly doesn’t deserve this, an honor reserved only for matriarchs!” came the response.

“And what has she to do with our survival?” another matriarch demanded. “What has your prisoner told you, he who bears a piece of the Metal World like the outcast? It’s what led him here, isn’t it, what called him here? I knew it from the start, she is a curse, not a blessing! She brought the Carjans and the machines to Mother’s Heart! She has brought death and destruction to the Embrace, no different from the faithless Ancient Ones! She will wake her father, the Metal Devil, and doom us all!”

Angela almost flinched at the words, for while they were inaccurate, they weren’t exactly wrong. Fareeha began to growl, looking ready to snap at the blithering old women, but then Ana took another step and stood in front of them, protecting them both.

“You have never seen clearly when it came to the outcast, Ana, and now you’ve gone too far!” yet another matriarch accused. “You’re squandering All-Mother’s grand favor, one that saw you become the first fox matriarch, misusing your unique rank to further your personal goals!”

“My personal goals?” Ana echoed, and though her voice was calm, it was a chilling sound. “My personal goals?” the war-chief repeated, this time with powerful, fearsome snarl that had most of the matriarchs cowering, others even stumbling. “Were that true, I would have raised Angela myself, in my home, and not have let you fools throw her into the wilds as though that were a mercy.

I would have allowed--- no, encouraged vixens to mate if that was what they truly wanted, and I would have allowed my only daughter to live the life she wanted without having to win a Proving. I wouldn’t have antagonized her every decision, telling her she couldn’t be like her father, because she has to stay alive to make more foxes to be pushed into the front of battle for the tribe’s sake. I’ve respected and followed the Nora faith, regardless of whether I agree with it or not. I have put the tribe before my life, my kind, and my daughter, but, please, challenge me to be more self-serving, and we shall see if a single fox remains with the tribe after.”

The matriarchs were speechless for long, regarding Ana with newfound fear, and when they did find their voices, it was only to murmur amongst themselves, the sight reminding Angela of the Carjan priests at the festival.

“And what does that say of the Nora, if we turn our backs on the very guardians that brought us where we are now, like the Ancient Ones had done to All-Mother?” a matriarch finally spoke, and it was Rasa, who, along with only a handful of other matriarchs, stood behind Ana, not in front of her. “Ana,” she continued when there came no protest, “take Angela inside the mountain. Give to her what we had wrongfully taken away.”

Like a weak foundation, the opposing matriarchs crumbled at Rasa’s words. They gave way, with Fletcha being the last to move, and Ana, with a nod to Rasa, pressed forward. Angela, with Fareeha’s hand in hers, followed Ana inside.

* * *

The door closed behind them, and in a backdrop of stone and metal coalesced, one she had seen before, what captured Angela’s attention was Fareeha. Fareeha, with the wide, curious eyes that held such a bright spark of wonder. Fareeha, who, in her excitement, ran past Ana and further into the candlelit tunnel, marveling at the unfamiliar.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” the tod murmured in awe. “All the metal in this stone, or did the metal come before? And that hum, it sounds like a machine. I can feel it through these closed doors.”

“It means there’s still power here,” Angela said, and when Fareeha turned to her, eager to know more, the tod had never looked so beautiful to her. “This place, it’s like the Metal Ruins I found when I was a child. It’s where I got my focus. The sound you’re hearing means that some parts of this ruin still work as they did in ancient times.”

“Like Metal Ruins, is it?” Ana asked, head shaking in amusement. “I don’t think the Nora will ever be ready to hear that. Now follow, you two. We’re not here to enjoy the sights.”

With reluctance, Fareeha tore herself from the closed door and returned to Angela’s side. Angela smiled, taking the tod’s hand and squeezing comfortingly. Her eyes never left Fareeha’s face until Ana led them into a massive room and brought them before a door, larger and more grand than the rest.

“It was twenty-five years ago when I stood before this door, drawn here from the outside the mountain because I heard a voice,” Ana said, moving forward but stopping before she set foot on the large, circular metal plate in front of the door. “It opened, and there came another sound - the wail of a newborn - it led me inside, and I found you, Angela.”

Angela stared at door, and then back at Ana.

“And I was… alone?”

“The voice that called me spoke once more, and then never again,” Ana said, stepping into the center of the circle.

From the door came a light and then a voice, cold and metallic.

“Mutation detected. Access granted.”

“Mutation…?” Angela murmured, but her own question went forgotten when the massive door began to open.

Hurriedly, she and Fareeha joined Ana on the plate, both of them watching in awe as the metal seals seemed to fall away.

“The matriarchs sang praises of me when they heard those words,” Ana said as she headed inside, Angela and Fareeha at her heels. “They called it a sign, that the All-Mother had spoken for the first time after many, many years of silence, and that she had spoken to me meant that she had chosen the first fox to be made a matriarch. They declared it was my right and my right alone to enter this sacred ground, but when I came back, a newborn kit in my arms, most of those songs turned to curses.”

Angela gazed at their surroundings as Ana spoke and led them. Beside her, Fareeha was doing the same, both of them taking in the purely metal structure, a part of the ancient world that nature had yet to take back. It was in such good, working condition that Angela didn’t think it deserved to be called ruins. Power hummed through the floors, the walls and the ceilings, lights and interfaces like that from her focus guiding their way.

They followed Ana, the war-chief seeming to retrace the steps she took twenty-five years ago perfectly. Down a hallway, then another, and then a left turn, and soon they were in a room filled with what looked like metallic cradles. When Ana stopped at one, the only one that seemed to be functioning, Angela reached for her focus.

[ECTOGENIC CHAMBER B1-001]

[BIRTHING LOGGED 3021-AP-04]

[TASKING #01485698F31 COMPLETE]

[STANDING BY]

“This is where you found me,” Angela said, realizing, not asking, and Ana nodded.

“You stopped crying when you saw me,” Ana murmured, gazing at Angela with what she could only guess was motherly affection, “and then you smiled when you caught my scent. I picked you up, held you in my arms, and then I heard the voice, not the one at the door, but the one that had called me to you.”

“What did the voice say?” Fareeha asked, because Angela found she could not speak, the emotion from Ana affecting her.

“It was a broken voice, barely there, but I heard it,” Ana whispered, reaching up to touch Angela’s face, “and she said, ‘Please take care of my Angela, she’s our only chance to heal this world.’”

“Maybe it was her mother,” Fareeha said, eyes brimming with hope. “Maybe it’s the woman we saw in the focus, the one who looks like her. Maybe she got hurt, trying to get away from the Eclipse, and she had to leave Angela here to keep her safe.”

Angela squeezed Fareeha’s hand, unsure if it was to thank the tod or to seek comfort.

“It’s possible,” Ana admitted, her eyes now on her daughter. “If the Eclipse have been seeking her all this time, it’s possible, and I can see why it had torn her away from you, Angela, and why it continues to keep her away, if she is still out there somewhere.”

“She has to be,” Fareeha insisted. “The Eclipse mistook Angela for her, she must still be alive, Mama. If all you heard was her voice, maybe she has a focus like Angela, and that she talked to you from somewhere far away, Mama, like the Eclipse did with their Focus. It’d explain why her voice is different, maybe the focus can do that, too.”

“The only chance to heal the world?” Angela whispered to herself, repeating the words Ana had said. “I can understand a mother, if that’s who she is to me, wanting to keep her daughter safe, but why say that?”

“I can’t answer that, Angela,” Ana said, and Angela felt the hand on her cheek fall away. “What I can tell you is that there is one door here that didn’t open for me. I have a feeling you’ll have better luck with it.”

Finding Fareeha’s hand again, Angela turned off her focus as they followed Ana, not wanting to be distracted. In their path, they came across what looked to be the remains of a machine, but it was human-shaped.

Later, she reminded herself.

She stopped when she saw the door, making Fareeha stop with her. It looked like any of the ancient doors she had seen before, but this one stood out by angry red lines carved on it, so numerous that the door itself was more red than metal.

“Looks like even the Ancient Ones couldn’t get this door open,” Fareeha remarked, and then blinked, turning to Ana. “Unless you did this, Mama?”

Ana laughed, reaching up to touch her daughter’s cheek and patting it affectionately.

“Give me more credit than that, my little fox. Now, Angela, just step in front of it, like I did with the door outside.”

Nodding, Angela did as Ana instructed, and there came the same light and voice.

“Hold for Identiscan,” the voice commanded as the light went over her body, from head to toe. “Error. Alpha Registry Corrupted. Identity cannot be confirmed. Entry denied.”

With that, the light blinked out, and the door remained closed, the voice not speaking another word.

Angela released the breath she was holding, the weight of disappointment making her chest ache. In an instant, Fareeha was behind her, strong arms wrapping around her and supporting her. Ana came to her side, cupping her chin and making her look back up.

“Don’t give up just yet, Angela,” Ana said, her tone soothing. “The door didn’t open, true, but the voice said something different to you. Watch.”

Taking her place, Ana was examined by the light, and the response from the voice was swift.

“Entry denied.”

With a tug from Ana, Fareeha reluctantly released Angela and mimicked what her mother had done.

“Entry denied.”

“You see?” Ana said, smiling. “It denies us outright, but with you, it speaks of corruption, and if that is something you can fix, then this door will open for you, Angela.”

“Corruption,” Fareeha repeated, looking pensive, “like that ancient machine, maybe? You told me during the battle that it was corrupting the sawtooths. This door is controlled by a machine, too, isn’t it? What if it’s been corrupted?”

“Maybe, but I wouldn’t know the first thing to do to go about fixing it,” Angela said, leaning on Fareeha once the tod pulled her back into an embrace. “All I know is Torbjörn is the only link we have now. I have to find him.”

“Angela---” Fareeha started to say, but Angela shushed the tod.

“I’d like to stay here for a while,” she said, looking at Ana, and the war-chief nodded.

“Of course.”

* * *

Angela crossed the gates and set foot on the small piece of land she called her own for the last twenty-five years. She paused, gazing fondly at the grazer training dummies that still bore the arrows from her early training days, many of which had missed the mark. The campfire, where she and Reinhardt spent many nights talking after sparring sessions, appeared to have been unused for some time. Bending over, she brushed away the snow that had gathered at the pit and the logs.

“Angela?”

Having heard the steps before the voice, Angela turned and smiled, seeing Reinhardt standing at the doorway of the house. She ran to him, quick to note his broken arm in a sling, and let him pull her into a tight embrace with his other arm.

“Oh, I was so worried about you, Angela,” Reinhardt murmured, a tremor in his deep voice. “When I saw you, the snow around you red with your blood, I feared---” he cut himself off, swallowing, and took a deep breath. “But here you are, and… by All-Mother, you’re but skin and bones!” he cried out, distraught once more, and suddenly afraid he would snap her in half if he held her too tight. “Have you eaten at all since you’ve awoken, kit?”

“Several days worth of meals, thanks to Fareeha,” Angela said, laughing. “I am hungry again now, though. It was quite a walk from Mother’s Watch.”

“What? Why didn’t you say so sooner?” Reinhart asked, though he didn’t wait for an answer, already ushering her inside. “Good thing I had just gotten back from a hunt, and that Ana dropped off two boars this morning. Don’t give me the look I should be giving you, kit, I can hunt perfectly fine with one arm. I can cook with one arm as well, I’ll show you!”

Angela shook her head, but she didn’t argue, letting Reinhardt welcome her home.

* * *

They talked as they ate, Reinhardt telling her that he had been heading to the Proving site when the ancient machines barrelled through the Embrace gates, and Angela telling him about the Shadow Carja and the Eclipse, about Hanzo and his father, and lastly, about All-Mother Mountain and the woman who looked like her.

“And this woman, she who may be your mother, you will search for her?” Reinhardt asked, a question only out of politeness. She knew he knew the answer; he raised her, after all.

“I mean to search for Torbjörn first,” she clarified, and then admitted, “but it’s my hope that he leads me to her, yes. I need to know who she is, who she is to me, and why the Eclipse are after her, why so many Nora lost their lives because of me.”

“And in doing so, you will become an exile,” Reinhardt whispered, looking like he had lost his appetite.

“I am not one yet,” she pointed out, “right now, I’m an outcast still, like you.”

Reinhardt was one of the most faithful Nora, obeying the matriarchs without question and adhering to the tribe’s laws better than those among the tribe. It was a faith he had attempted to instill her, the one lesson he had failed to teach her, and all the years Angela had known him, he had always been proud of his belief. Yet now, when she had to assure him, when she implied that he would not have spoken to her had she not come bearing her outcast mark, he seemed ashamed.

“Angela, I…” he began, trailed off, and then sighed. “I am sorry, Angela. I am not as resolute as I’ve made myself seem to you. While it’s true that I had intended you will never find me after the Proving, I had only done so in hopes that you would embrace the Nora, the tribe beyond the foxes. I wish for you and for them to see change, from each other, to each other, and to come together as a tribe. That, and because I know I wouldn’t be strong enough to deny if you had come back to me as a brave. Whatever mark you wear or don't wear, please know I could not turn you away any more than I could have kept myself away during the battle at Mother’s Heart.

As for the Nora faith, well… it has never treated me ill as it had you. I had as good a life as any Nora could have wished. I grew up in Mother’s Vigil, though now it’s called the Forsaken Village. One day, while I was out on a hunt, a group of outsiders attacked, and my wife, a brave like I, died protecting an elderly couple. By the time I had gotten there, the outsiders were already fleeing. They took the village’s children with them, six of them, one a vixen kit, barely a week old. Her mother was a dear friend of mine, and I vowed to her that I would bring her her daughter back.

The outsiders stayed behind the border, knowing the Nora would not dare cross, and when any brave grew bold enough to draw close, they killed a child, until there was only one left, the vixen kit. The matriarchs ordered the braves away from the border, and the outsiders escaped.

I went to the matriarchs, begging to made a death-seeker, to perform for me a secret rite of the tribe. The matriarchs removed my spirit from my body so it could remain here in the Sacred Lands, while my body sought those who brought death to the Nora and bring death right back to them. But… the outsiders, they were of a tribe called the Tenakth, one that had overtaken the south with an ease that would have made Mad King Talon envious, for the Tenakth boasted an army of those like you, Angela. I am a strong man, that much I can say with confidence, say as fact, but against that army, I stood no chance.

I resolved, then, not to seek vengeance or death, but the vixen kit they had taken. I followed them, stole into their lands - the Vicious South, No Man’s Land - and I watched and I listened, until, finally, I found her. I took her the moment I saw her, for I could wait no longer. They hunted me as I escaped to the Sundom, and at the border of the Sacred Lands, they found me, and we fought head to head, just me and one opposing vixen. I am ashamed to say that I couldn’t best her, not even with a kit’s life on the line. She struck me, one final blow, and I fell. I lay there, not even strong enough to lift my head, and heard the kit start to cry. I remember her shadow as the vixen came to me, but by that point, I could barely keep my eyes open. It felt undeserved, that I was looking upon the Sacred Lands as I took my dying breaths, when I had lost my wife and I had failed to see through the promise I made to my friend.

But then I woke up, and I was in the Sacred Lands. Nora foxes had heard our struggle, and they had arrived just before the vixen finished me. Not wanting to risk an encounter with other vixens, not when she had claimed the kit, the vixen fled. Ana, I was told, had reached across the border and had dragged me back in, back home, despite my failings. The matriarchs knew not what to do with me, because a death-seeker was not supposed to return. They squabbled for days and days, until finally, they came to a decision: that I was to tell no one of my being a death-seeker, and that I was allowed to live the rest of my life in the Sacred Lands, as an outcast. I believed then that it was the will of All-Mother that I kept my life, that I was to serve a purpose still.”

“After what you tried to do for them, what you nearly died for, they cast you out?” Angela said, shaking her head. “After your loss, they leave you alone? And then they gave me to you, a reminder of your failure?”

Reinhardt placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently.

“What seems like a curse and a burden to you, Angela, were blessings to me,” he said, regarding her warmly, “especially you. Never doubt that, because it was you, Angela, you are the reason I had not died outside of the border that day. You gave me a second life, one I felt I did nothing to deserve, and one I cherish, dearly, and thank All-Mother for every single day since you were given to me. You gave me the chance to be a father, to be something more than an outcast. And when, not if, you finish your journey, you’ll always be welcome here.”

Angela smiled and nodded.

“Thank you, Reinhardt.”

Reinhardt smiled back, and then withdrew his hand to resume eating, prompting Angela to do the same.

“So,” he began, already grinning, “it seems you’ve grown very close to Fareeha in such a short time. Quite the talk of the tribe, I heard much about it while I was recovering at Mother’s Watch.”

“I’m very fond of her,” Angela said, smiling. “She’s been taking such good care of me, and she’s never left my side since I woke up. She’d be with me still if Ana didn’t make her stay and talk.”

“Will she be with you when you go?” Reinhardt asked, and Angela’s smile turned into a frown.

“That would be too much to ask of her,” she whispered, eyes downcast.

She would have said more, but she caught familiar scents enter the house. She looked up, and sure enough, there was Ana and Fareeha.

“Maybe try asking her,” Ana advised with a smirk.

“But...” Angela trailed off, still in shock that the mother and daughter were here, “but she would become an exile if she were to come with me.”

“Not as seekers, no,” Ana proclaimed. “As of now, Angela, you and Fareeha are seekers, and the matriarchs have tasked you both to search for the source of the corruption and be rid of it. Wherever it is, you will go, be it in Metal Ruins or outside the Sacred Lands, and you are free to return, if you so pleased.”

“You’ve made the kits seekers, Ana?” Reinhardt mumbled, gaping. “How did you manage that?”

Ana looked at Fareeha, touching her daughter’s cheek.

“It was my last act as matriarch,” the war-chief said, smiling when Fareeha nuzzled her hand. “Time I go back being a mother, and as a mother, I’m done standing in the way of what my daughter wants. And what she wants, Angela, is to go with you.”

Angela was moving before she realized it, and then she was throwing her arms around Ana, hugging the vixen she wanted so badly to call her mother. Her breath hitched when she felt Ana hold her, her body relaxing as her instincts told her she was safe where she was.

“Oh, Ana, my friend, that’s such wonderful, wonderful news!” came Reinhardt’s loud voice, followed shortly by his even louder laughter, which made all three foxes wince.

“If you weren’t already injured,” Ana muttered, glaring at the man who then grinned sheepishly.

Refusing to relinquish the motherly affection she was receiving, especially when Ana began to brush back her hair, Angela met Fareeha’s eyes, silently asking if the tod truly wished to go with her. Fareeha nodded, mouthed, ‘I’m with you, Angela,’ and then flashed her a winning grin.

“Thank you,” Angela told both mother and daughter, for once not questioning their support and their faith in her, instead grateful for it, and grateful for them.

“There is one thing, however,” Ana said after a moment, drawing back to look at her. “I won’t have you leaving the Sacred Lands, much less the Embrace, in your condition. I won’t have it, Angela,” the war-chief barked, cutting her off before she could even begin to protest. “You are in no shape to travel or fight. How are you and Fareeha supposed to look out for each other when you can’t hold on your own, when she has to worry about you both all the time? Yes, you must find Torbjörn, but if you leave now, I may as well be sending you to your death. You and Fareeha will go only once you’ve recovered, and only then. Understood?”

Angela sighed, any fight in her driven away by Ana’s words.

“Understood.”

Ana smiled, looking proud of her.

“Good,” the war-chief said, smile turning into a smirk. “And don’t pout so much, Fareeha will stay here to take care of you.”

Ana released her, and Angela was pulled into another pair of arms, Fareeha’s comforting scent filling her nose. Angela closed her eyes and melted in the tod’s embrace. Ana was right, she had to recover first, and now the wait was nowhere near as bad as she thought it was going to be, not with Fareeha to see it through with her.


	4. To Daytower

Smiling at moaning tod under her, Angela kissed down Fareeha’s neck, loving that she felt the quiver in the tod’s throat. Her hands sought Fareeha’s as she made her way further down, and she brought the tod’s hands over her head, enjoying how the stretch accentuated Fareeha’s already defined muscles.  
  
“Beautiful,” she murmured, pinning down Fareeha’s wrists.  
  
Reaching the tod’s breasts, Angela kissed just above them, feeling the tod’s racing heart, and then moved to one breast, leaving soft, fleeting kisses around the nipple. Fareeha’s back arched, though not as much as the tod would have liked, her hands still pinned. Angela replaced her lips with her tongue, making smaller and smaller circles until she reached the center, which drew a moan from the tod that sent a shiver through her own body. Fareeha, Angela had learned, had sensitive breasts, far more than her own, and she had made sure to lavish them with attention ever since she found out.  
  
Finally taking the nipple in her mouth, Angela closed her mouth over it and sucked gently. Fareeha jerked under her, the hard cock inside her throbbing briefly and eliciting an answering squeeze from her inner walls. Angela pushed down with her hips, stilling the squirming tod under her, and let her sharp teeth graze the hard, sensitive nipple in her mouth.  
  
“Angela!” Fareeha gasped, back arching again, seeking more of her mouth, and Angela released the tod’s hands, which immediately grasped her hips.  
  
Angela moved her hips, enjoying the feel of the hot, hard cock spreading her and sinking to the deepest parts of her. She turned her attention to Fareeha’s other breast, subjecting it to the same teasing until the tod under her was gasping and squirming and clawing at her hips.  
  
Kissing her way back up, Angela found Fareeha’s lips, indulging herself in the tod’s lips and tongue. Fareeha responded eagerly, following her lead and yielding to her when she growled and got a little rough.  
  
“Up,” she rasped, barely breaking the kiss as she sat up and pulled Fareeha with her.  
  
Wiggling her hips a little to adjust to the shifted position, Angela refocused on the kiss. They kissed like they moved, slow and languid, and Angela ran her fingers through Fareeha’s hair. Hair that, she noted with delight, had grown considerably. That she didn’t have to ask Fareeha to grow out her hair thrilled Angela. Though it was still fairly short, there was enough to tug, and when she did, she purred, pleased with the tod.  
  
Fareeha gasped in her mouth, hips bucking, the tod reacting to the rarity that was a vixen purring. Angela let her other hand get lost in Fareeha’s hair, feeling and hearing the tod’s own powerful purr. She deepened the kiss, happy to tug at Fareeha’s hair, hips rolling as she rode her tod.  
  
Spurred by her approval, Fareeha met her hips perfectly, thrusting when she rolled forward, and then found that sensitive spot on her hip, sending an electric shudder through her body. Angela moaned, walls squeezing so hard at Fareeha that the tod couldn’t move. She broke the kiss, exposing Fareeha’s neck to her already bared teeth, and reopened the wound that had barely healed from last night, the mark she had been renewing again and again over the last two weeks.  
  
Once the possessive surge had passed, Angela drew back, admiring the mark she made before closing back in to lick the bleeding wound. Fareeha tilted her head, offering more of her neck, and Angela rewarded the tod with another tight squeeze.  
  
“Wake up, kits, time for breakfast!” Reinhardt announced as he marched inside with a tray full of food in one hand, which he almost dropped when he saw them and abruptly turned around. “Oh. Uh. I see Fareeha’s up--- that is, I see you’re both awake!”  
  
“Not a kit anymore,” Angela murmured against Fareeha’s neck, smiling Reinhardt’s way.  
  
“Let him have his nickname for you,” Fareeha quipped, hands moving past her hips to her ass, “even if it is confusing.”  
  
“We foxes need more terms,” Angela remarked, rocking her hips as she continued to lap at the still bleeding mark on Fareeha’s neck.  
  
“True,” Fareeha agreed breathlessly, hips moving in sync with hers. “My Mama calls me her little fox.”  
  
Angela laughed, hands finding Fareeha’s hair again.  
  
“See?”  
  
“Hey,” Fareeha protested, though she was grinning and leaning into Angela’s touch, “I like my nickname.”  
  
“I, ah,” Reinhardt stammered, and cleared his throat, putting so much effort into it that he coughed a bit. “I think I have to come up with a new nickname for Angela now. Nothing like seeing your vixen daughter mounting a tod to make you accept she’s no longer a kit,” he said, laughing awkwardly.  
  
“That’s what I’ve been saying, Reinhardt!” exclaimed a tiny voice. Soeli entered the room with her own tray of food, walking right under Reinhardt’s legs, Ra right behind her. “Angela’s not a kit, I am!” she told him, and then looked at her furry companion. “Right, Ra?”  
  
Ra yipped, which Soeli assumed as an agreement.  
  
“See!” she gloated to Reinhardt, who retreated, and then she noticed the pair on the bed. “Angela!” the kit barked, marching over to them. “War-Chief said sex isn’t training! Stop having sex with Fareeha!”  
  
“But Soeli, didn’t you say Fareeha and I needed to practice?” Angela asked innocently, making a show of riding Fareeha, eyes rolling back whenever she took the tod’s long, large cock hilt deep.  
  
Soeli gawked, a look of realization crossing the kit’s face.  
  
“You’re right, Angela!”  
  
Fareeha let out a shaky breath, eyes unfocused, nails dragging down her hips.  
  
“Sneaky vixen,” the tod groaned against her neck.  
  
Angela laughed breathlessly, making Fareeha shudder.  
  
“A sneaky vixen suits a clever tod just fine, wouldn’t you agree?” she whispered before nipping at the tod’s ear.  
  
Pulling Fareeha down, Angela purred again, and the reaction was immediate. Atop her now, Fareeha began to thrust in earnest, hips slamming into hers with force as one hand sought and found the spot on her hip while the other cupped her face as they kissed.  
  
Ana showed up in time with Angela’s orgasm, and Angela briefly saw the war-chief smirking their way before she shut her eyes and bit Fareeha’s neck again, clawing down the tod’s back as she came all over the cock deep inside her. Fareeha, knowing exactly what she needed, followed suit as she was still clenching, the hot, powerful rush of cum sending her into a second orgasm as she was filled and flooded. She lifted her hips, despite their bodies already being flush, demanding every drop the tod had to give even as it began to spill out of her.  
  
“Well, Angela,” she registered Ana’s voice after the haze began to fade, “if you can do that all morning after doing it all night last night, I think it’s safe to say you’ve recovered. Breakfast first once you two are done, and then you should get ready to head out.”  
  
Taking the tray from Soeli, Ana took the kit’s hand and lead her out.  
  
“They’ll eat with us at the table when they’re done, Soeli,” Ana told the kit.  
  
“Okay, War-Chief,” the chipper kit said as she picked up Ra, beaming at Ana before looking back at them. “Practice all you want, Angela, Fareeha, we got lots of food for you!”  
  
Alone again, Angela let her head fall back against the pillow that Fareeha had thoughtfully slid under her. She pulled the tod in, exhaling contentedly when she felt the comforting weight settle on top of her and loving the still hard cock inside of her. They were quiet for a moment, Angela playing with Fareeha’s hair as they both tried to catch their breaths.  
  
“We can leave today,” Angela murmured, recalling the last two weeks of her recovery, which she had spent training as she regained her strength.  
  
It would have been a tedious, frustrating process had it not been for Fareeha tending to her every need, be it food or sex. Fareeha was also there in between, asking questions about her Focus and starting to learn the basics of the ancient language.  
  
“I got most of our supplies ready,” Fareeha said, nuzzling her neck and purring. “Mostly just essentials: food, shards, machine parts. We’ll have to travel light, not due to weight but capacity. Bad idea to have too many things at once. There should be a lot of outposts and traders on the way to Meridian.”  
  
Angela watched her fingers run through Fareeha’s hair, pensive.  
  
“Did the Nora keep the remains of the corruptors?” she asked, referring to the ancient machines that the tribe had taken to calling corruptors, after she had said it had been corrupting machines. “Or did the matriarchs have them thrown away?”  
  
“They wanted to, but Jesse got a hold of most of the corruptor parts and hid them,” Fareeha replied, looking at her. “Why do you ask?”  
  
“I have an idea,” Angela said, reaching down to squeeze her tod’s ass meaningfully, “but it can wait.”

* * *

Jesse's house, south of the fishing village Mother's Cradle, looked more like a shop than a home. Flanked by lines of training dummies, the house's front boasted racks of weapons and shelves of ammunition. Angela recognized the lot she had seen at the festival, the more unconventional sort catching her eye: the slings, the ropecaster, and the tripcaster. There was even a rattler, but not like Fareeha’s, which she learned had been modified by the tod herself to fire bombs instead of bolts, yet another thing Angela found dangerously attractive about the beautiful fox she had been spending most of her time with.  
  
_We should get those before we leave,_ she thought of the slings and casters.  
  
"Strange, no guards," Fareeha remarked as they began to approach the house.  
  
The door swung open, well before they could pick up any scents inside. Jesse stepped out, greeting them with a smile and a wave.  
  
"Angela, Fareeha, so nice of you two to drop by! Angela, you look better than ever!" he exclaimed, taking brisk strides towards them. "Fareeha took good, good care of you, I see," he said, winking, but when it yielded no reaction, he huffed. "Right, right, can't tease a fox about sex. Anyway, I know about this seeker's journey you two are going on. If you need anything, just say the word. Free of charge, parting gifts, if you will, except I expect the two of you to come back when you're done with this seeker business."  
  
"That's very generous of you, Jesse, thank you," Angela said, and then gave the man a pointed look. “But why are you acting like you’re hiding something from us?”  
  
"Jesse," Fareeha grunted, crossing her arms. "The prisoner is in your house, isn't he? Where are the guards?"  
  
Caught, Jesse’s happy grin turned nervous.  
  
“I, ah, sent them away,” he confessed, and quickly raised a hand up before either of them could protest. “But it’s fine, trust me, I have it under control. Hanzo’s not going to escape, and he’s not going to kill me.”  
  
“So, what, you keep him tied up?” Fareeha asked, already stalking towards the house. “What use is he to you if he’s just sitting there?”  
  
“Unless you’re letting him walk about freely,” Angela said, falling in step with Fareeha as Jesse hurried after them, sputtering.  
  
“Well, I wouldn’t say free! He can’t leave the shop, for one!”  
  
Fareeha scoffed.  
  
“He can’t, or are you trusting that he won’t?” she challenged, baring her teeth when Jesse blocked the door. “He’s not your guest, Jesse, he’s our prisoner.”  
  
“And I haven’t forgotten that, Fareeha,” he said, wisely keeping his voice calm and level. “Look, this isn’t something I did on a whim. He’s been here, under guard, for the last two weeks, and he hasn’t tried to do anything. Then I realized, he won’t, for the same reason the tribe doesn’t want to execute him because that’s what he wants. He won’t try to escape because that’s cowardly, and he won’t try to kill me because it goes against that honor code of his, since he thinks I’m a helpless, one-armed merchant.”  
  
“That’s a lot of trust you’re putting on the man who led a slaughter into the Embrace,” Fareeha muttered, shaking her head. “Angela, stay here with him. I’m heading back to Mother’s Cradle to find some braves to stand guard.”  
  
“You won’t find any,” Jesse said, now wearing a determined expression. “Fareeha, most of our braves are either dead or still recovering from the attack. Our vixens have been hunting corrupted machines all over the Sacred Lands for the past two weeks, they have no time to guard Hanzo. Besides, I’m watching him, Fareeha, I’m doing what I’ve been told, what the war-chief has told me to do.”  
  
What Ana wanted, Fareeha had told Angela, was for Hanzo to earn his keep while the tribe decided what to do with him, as he had been a drain on their resources during his imprisonment. Jesse had been the obvious choice for the Eclipse commander’s supervisor, still being the only Nora in the tribe who was willing to tolerate the man.  
  
Hanzo, Angela heard from Ana and the vixens, had also worn on the tribe’s patience, taking every chance he got to goad the vixens - and just notably the vixens - into attacking him. So the prisoner was kept away from the villages but still within the Embrace, making Jesse’s house the perfect location, where he was made to live and work as Nora do.  
  
“Hurt his pride, turn him into what he’s looked down upon,” Angela remarked, and Jesse nodded. “A better punishment than execution, given the circumstance.”  
  
“Still a punishment that doesn’t fit the crime,” Fareeha grumbled, and then sighed, “but, yes. Mama made the right decision.”  
  
“One that isn’t being compromised,” Jesse assured them. “I’m not his friend, Fareeha, and I don’t intend to be. I don’t deny what he’s done, especially not when I see the pain and damage he’s caused every day, when I talk to Nora in the village who lost loved ones to him and his men, when I see the ruined gates of the Embrace we still haven’t had the time to rebuild. Don’t mistake my compassion for ignorance, my wanting to treat him like a human being and not like a slave as the Carja of the Red raids would. Okay?”  
  
Fareeha glanced at the door, seeming to consider leveling it along with Jesse, but she turned back to the man, looked him in the eye, and relented.  
  
“Okay.”  
  
Jesse nodded, smiling.  
  
“I suppose I didn’t help things by acting all shifty to start,” he said, looking sheepish. “I apologize for that, but I wasn’t expecting a fox visit, and I panicked, I admit. Hanzo has a… talent for crossing foxes. I will tell the war-chief of this new arrangement soon as I can, though, I promise you that.”  
  
“You better,” Fareeha huffed, though the tod had mostly calmed down.  
  
“Soon as I can,” Jesse affirmed, his usual grin back in place. “Now that that’s settled, would you two like to look around the shop? Give them a try at the dummies there, if you like, too. Or do you have your eye on something already?”  
  
“I do,” Angela said, glancing at the slings and casters, “but our priority is the corruptor parts. Fareeha told me you managed to salvage them before the matriarchs had the machines thrown out.”  
  
“Ah, I had a feeling you’d be interested in those, Angela,” Jesse bragged, looking pleased. “We’ll have to go inside for that, what with me harboring tainted metal in the Sacred Lands. Oh, right,” he suddenly said, opening the door slightly. “Hanzo, you can come out now! It’s okay, I talked to Angela and Fareeha!”  
  
Opening the door fully, Jesse led them into the house. Like the outside, the front room had been repurposed as a shop, rows upon rows of shelves and racks filled with machine parts from every type of machine found in the Sacred Lands. Hanzo, on crutches, stood before a line of blaze canisters, appearing to be taking inventory.  
  
Angela observed the Eclipse commander, noting that most of his injuries have healed, though there remained scars on his neck and his broken leg likely a long way from recovering. His hair, which had been a dirty mess last she saw, now looked brushed and washed, pulled together in a simple tie.  
  
“Wow, right back to work, huh?” Jesse greeted Hanzo, who didn’t acknowledge him. “You came out of hiding fast, didn’t even hear you scrambling out of the closet or anything.”  
  
Hanzo sneered.  
  
“I wasn’t hiding.”  
  
Jesse, undeterred, laughed and gave the Carjan an amiable smack on the back.  
  
“Thanks for having so much faith in me, then!” the merchant exclaimed, impossible to tell if he were teasing or sincere, though likely both. “Well, keep up the good work, Hanzo. I’m taking Angela and Fareeha to the back room. Don’t forget, we should be expecting about a dozen chillwater today.”  
  
Hanzo made an unhappy noise that Jesse took for a yes, and the merchant headed for a door past the kitchen. Fareeha and Angela watched Hanzo closely for a moment, to see if he had more of a reaction, but the man continued to work, ignoring them altogether.  
  
“Keep the door open,” Fareeha told Jesse, glaring at Hanzo’s back.  
  
“Yes,” Angela agreed, and Jesse complied with a simple nod.  
  
The merchant yanked a large box into view, filled to the brim with machine parts.  
  
“That’s everything I could grab,” he said, “hope I got what you’re looking for, Angela.”  
  
Thanking Jesse, Angela opened her focus’ interface and let the device scan the contents of the box. There appeared some similarities between the corruptor and the machines, as the focus identified a core, a braiding, a heart and lens, even the same sort of shards used for currency.  
  
“What are you looking for, exactly?” Fareeha asked.  
  
“The component in the corruptor that lets it control other machines,” Angela said, smiling as the curious tod leaned closer. “If my focus can identify it, I think I can do what the corruptor does.”  
  
As soon as she said it, her focus highlighted a particular component, buried near the bottom of the box. She fished it out, letting the device scan if fully, and read the words as they appeared.  
  
[Override component reprogram successful.]  
  
“Override,” Angela repeated the word.  
  
“Is that what it’s called?” Fareeha guessed. “To control a machine? Overriding it?”  
  
Angela nodded.  
  
“I think so.”  
  
“So, if it works, you can make machines fight for you like that corruptor did with the sawtooths?” Fareeha asked, eyeing the component in Angela’s hand in awe.  
  
“I may need a part from a corrupted sawtooth, maybe its heart,” Angela said, turning to Jesse, who was already dragging another box over to her.  
  
“Should find a corrupted sawtooth heart in here, and a bunch of others,” he told her. “I asked the vixens to bring me intact parts from their corruption hunts.”  
  
“That’s brilliant, Jesse, thank you!” Angela exclaimed, immediately searching the box and finding the heart with no trouble.  
  
[Sawtooth override: available.]  
  
Following the words were a list of other machines she knew, all the rest labeled unavailable. When she closed the list, Fareeha was already handing her several corrupted hearts, the tod looking adorably eager.  
  
Kissing Fareeha on the cheek as thanks, Angela let her focus scan the hearts, and by the end of it, the device informed her that she could override nearly every machine native to the Sacred Lands.  
  
“So, you can do it now?” Fareeha asked. “Make machines fight for you?”  
  
“That, or maybe use the bigger ones as a means of transport for us,” Angela said, loving how the tod’s face lit up. “Meridian’s very far away, and we’re already behind on our trip since I had to recover first.”  
  
“That’s amazing,” Fareeha said, regarding her with reverence. “You’re amazing, Angela. We should try, right now!”  
  
Angela laughed, letting Fareeha practically carry her out of Jesse’s shop.

* * *

“Over here, Angela!”  
  
At Fareeha’s excited whisper, Angela abandoned her post and joined the tod’s perch on the large tree they had climbed for vantage. Their search for a sawtooth had taken them to a dense forest near ancient ruins called Devil’s Thirst, the location outside of the Embrace and deep into the Sacred Lands. Angela hadn’t had the time and feeling to spare the reality that she had finally set foot out of the Embrace, far too excited with her and Fareeha’s quest.  
  
Below them, the sawtooth Fareeha had spotted stalked by, startling the boars and turkeys and making them scatter. Nearby, the grazers and striders carried on, undisturbed, while a pair of watchers scanned the surrounding bushes.  
  
“They’ll be heading back,” she told Fareeha of the watchers, and then used her focus to check the sawtooth’s path. “I’ll take the one on the right.”  
  
Fareeha nodded, eyes on the other watcher.  
  
“Say when.”  
  
Angela waited until the sawtooth wandered far enough, and with a simple, “Go,” she and Fareeha dove down, spears brandished as they each hit their marks, their blades sinking into synthetic muscle and instantly finishing off the watchers, neither of them making a sound. Just as quick, they dragged the remains away from the rest of the machines’ view, and then climbed back up the tree.  
  
“Any other watchers nearby?” Fareeha asked as they settled back on their perch.  
  
With a quick sweeping scan of her focus, Angela shook her head.  
  
“We’re clear. We’ll be alerting these grazers, though, and some of them may fight instead of run.”  
  
“I can keep them off you,” Fareeha assured her, watching the sawtooth that was still at a distance. “Do you want to use the ropecaster to keep it down while you try to override it? We may tear off some of its plating if we do that, though. How long do you think it’ll take?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Angele replied honestly, holding up the base of her spear, to which she had attached the override component. “It should stop moving once I get the override started,” she said. “If I’m right, then we shouldn’t need the ropecaster, but if the grazers notice me, you’ll have to protect me and the sawtooth.”  
  
“I will,” Fareeha promised, and then grinned. “You’ll make it work, I know it.”  
  
Angela smiled, delighted with the tod’s confidence in her, and expressed her gratitude with a kiss on the cheek. Fareeha leaned on her as they waited for the sawtooth to double back, the tod’s purring filling the comfortable silence between them.  
  
After a couple of moments had passed, the sawtooth returned, and Angela got in position, at the ready with her spear. She allowed the machine to wander as close as it would, and when it turned around, she dropped down and caught up to it within three easy steps.  
  
Her approach silent, Angela held out her spear with the override component and held it as close as she could to the sawtooth’s heart.  
  
The machine seized, as she had thought, and though it made no sound, one of the grazers lifted its head, and, upon spotting her, alerted the rest of its herd. While most fled, a couple of grazers charged, but never got close to her and the sawtooth. From above, Fareeha dropped straight onto the back of one of the grazers, stabbing down through its body and knocking off a few canisters of blaze in the process. Startled, the other reared back, and then turned tail and fled with the rest of the herd.  
  
Angela barely noticed, her full attention on the blue light emitting from the override component. She held her spear steady, watching the progress of the override shown to her by her focus, and once completed, the sawtooth jerked but remained passive, its eyes blue.  
  
“Did it work?” Fareeha asked excitedly, venturing back to her once she had collected up the blaze from the grazer carcass. Seeing the sawtooth’s blue eyes, the tod’s red eyes filled with joy. “You did it?”  
  
Angela lowered her spear, reading over and over the words from her focus.  
  
[Override complete.]  
  
“Yes, it should be,” she said, still cautious. “Let’s see…” she said, flipping her spear to hold the sharp end out. Nodding to Fareeha on the other side, the tod excitedly stepped in front of the sawtooth.  
  
The machine looked at Fareeha, but then turned its head down again, not recognizing the tod as an enemy.  
  
“You did it!” Fareeha cheered, approaching the sawtooth. She pet it twice, and when the sawtooth still didn’t turn hostile, the tod wasted no time in hopping onto the machine’s back. “Angela, look, look!” she said, striking a triumphant pose and flexing.  
  
“Fareeha,” Angela giggled, encouraging more preening.  
  
“Come on, let’s go for a ride,” the tod urged, extending a hand to her.  
  
Angela smiled, happy to see Fareeha so excited, and took the tod’s offered hand.  
  
“Let’s,” she agreed.

* * *

After a quick stop at Jesse’s to pick up weapons and say goodbye, Angela and Fareeha returned to Reinhardt's house on their sawtooth mount. There to greet them were Ana and the vixens, looking like they’d be heading out on a hunt soon.  
  
Seeing them, the vixens approached, their faces reflecting varying degrees of surprise and awe. Ana was the only fox not to move, and Angela saw why: hiding behind the war-chief’s leg was Soeli, the kit cowering at the sight of the sawtooth as Fareeha made it halt.  
  
Ana crouched and picked up the kit, the little one quick to cling to her again.  
  
“No need to be frightened, Soeli,” the war-chief told the kit, stroking the little one’s hair soothingly. “This machine won’t hurt you, Angela’s made sure of it.”  
  
“No…?” Soeli squeaked, twisting in Ana’s arms to peek at the sawtooth. “So, it’s a good machine? Angela made it good?”  
  
“Yes,” Ana affirmed, kissing the top of the kit’s head.  
  
Feeling braver, the kit turned to face the sawtooth fully, wide eyes moving from the machine to Angela, who nodded and smiled in assurance. Soeli reached out a hand to the sawtooth, brought closer by Ana, and placed her small hand on the machine’s head. When the sawtooth simply stared back, a smile blossomed on the kit’s face, becoming a full blown grin when she faced Ana and the vixens.  
  
“It is good!” the kit exclaimed.  
  
“When did you get that?” Frea blurted, breaking from the trance that had caught the rest of the vixens.  
  
“Just now!” Fareeha replied proudly, hopping down first, and then extending a hand up to Angela to assist her sliding down. “Angela did it with her focus and this part she got from a corruptor.”  
  
“Impressive,” Nizeke noted, and the way she smiled at Angela sent a pleasant shiver down her spine.  
  
“War-Chief said you and Fareeha are leaving today,” Letly explained, nodding to the eldest vixen among them. “We’re due for a hunt, but we didn’t want to miss the chance to say goodbye.”  
  
Angela’s heart warmed. While she hadn’t known the vixens very long, she felt very close to all of them. They were the first friends she had ever made, and they had earned a special place in her heart because of that.  
  
She approached Letly as Fareeha greeted the vixens with hugs.  
  
“Thank you,” Angela said, pressing her lips to the vixen’s in a meager attempt to convey her appreciation.  
  
“Yeah, we just didn’t expect you to gallop up on a sawtooth,” Ris quipped, beaming at her, waiting until she was done with Letly to come in and hug her.  
  
Though Angela had come to know the vixen as moody and quick to anger, Ris’ temperament had changed a lot the moment the vixens had learned of Ana stepping down as matriarch. As Ana had given Fareeha the freedom to go with Angela, she had also allowed the vixens similar autonomy.  
  
Following the confrontation at All-Mother mountain, the foxes, though still loyal to the tribe, had distinctly broken off from the more vigorous and demanding rules of the Nora. Angela had heard that Ana had personally visited Ris and Viate, and the next time either of them had been seen, it was with mating bites on their necks.  
  
The two had wasted no time mating, and Ris’ mood had considerably lifted.  
  
“It’s a wonderful mount,” Viate said, appraising the sawtooth. She shook her head. “I won’t even ask, but I’m glad you won’t have to walk the whole way to Meridian.”  
  
Angela hugged Viate as well, wrapping her arms around her friend tightly.  
  
“Thank you,” she said again in a soft voice, and then to all of them when she pulled away. “Really.”  
  
“Aww, c’mere, stop making us tear up,” Frea waved her over, and then grabbed her around the ass, dipping her as they kissed.  
  
Angela giggled as Frea straightened with her and winked.  
  
“See what you missed while you were busy riding Fareeha raw?” she teased, squeezing Angela’s butt one last time.  
  
“I’ll have to catch up when I get back,” Angela teased back, turning to the next pair that awaited her attention: the twins.  
  
The duo came upon her as she parted from Frea, coming on either side of her and attaching at the hip. On her right, Qira wrapped herself into Angela’s arm, curling against her body. On her left, Lase wrapped an arm around Angela’s back and pulled her in against the vixen.  
  
“You will miss us,” Lase stated, touching her cheek and drawing her into a kiss.  
  
Angela felt Qira’s mouth on her jaw as she and Lase passionately kissed, and then a hand groped her breast, overwhelming Angela with warm sensations. After a long, enjoyable moment, Qira released her breast and laid a hand over Lase’s, redirecting Angela’s lips from Lase’ to her own. Lase hissed, apparently not having finished with her yet, and reached around Qira to lean in and bite the vixen’s jaw.  
  
“Lase,” Qira groaned through Angela’s lips, and Lase’ arm around her back tightened, fingers squeezing into her side. When Qira could take no more, she broke off from Angela and grabbed her twin by the shoulder, pulling Lase back from the fast-forming bruise to kiss the twin.  
  
“Mmm,” Lase hummed in delight as she and Qira continued to kiss deeply in front of Angela.  
  
Angela chuckled, watching the twins in amusement, a common sight to her now.  
  
“I will,” she confirmed fondly, and Lase finally pulled away from Qira to address her seriously.  
  
“Return with Fareeha quickly,” she demanded more than asked.  
  
“Yes,” Qira agreed, smiling at her twin before turning to Angela. “Else Lase may bite before we can all share,” she said, nearly purring the words.  
  
Angela gave Qira a curious look, trying to determine if the vixen meant what she thought she did, but Qira only smiled her way and promised, “We’ll miss you.”  
  
“I’ll hurry,” Angela promised as Lase’ gleaming eyes fixated on Qira’s neck.  
  
“We appreciate that,” Qira murmured, distracted and clearly aroused by her twin.  
  
Angela smiled, stepping back, but before she could even turn to the next vixen, Nizeke’s talented fingers touched the sensitive spot on her side so softly, it would be a crime to even call it a stroke. The feather-light touch sent a pleasurable shudder through her entire body, and Nizeke’s second hand came in around her far side, spinning Angela gently into the vixen’s arms as pleasure flooded her body.  
  
Nizeke’s skillful fingers rose a mere half an inch, then, allowing Angela to open her eyes to find those perfect cheekbones haloed by the most vibrant, wavy locks that Angela had ever seen. Slender fingers trailed up her opposite side while the first hand returned to the soft spot on her side, sending irresistible thrills through Angela’s body all over again.  
  
“We never got the chance to…”  
  
It took every ounce of effort and strength in her body to do it, but fighting the otherworldly pleasure, Angela reached up and grabbed Nizeke’s second hand.  
  
“Not yet,” she choked out, and Nizeke lifted her fingers off the spot that was driving Angela mad for the vixen. Angela glanced over at Fareeha, who was hugging Letly, and said, “she hasn’t found them yet, and I know she wants to do it herself.”  
  
Nizeke’s crystalline cyan almost appeared to gleam.  
  
“I understand,” she said, instead lifting the second hand to Angela’s shoulder. Leaning in close to Angela, she whispered, “When you get back,” and then pressed perfect lips to Angela’s in such a way, Angela felt the warm creep of arousal come upon her instantly.  
  
Nizeke didn’t linger, nor did she rush it, but she kept Angela’s lips busy for precisely the right amount of time, so that when she pulled away, Angela surged back at the vixen, driven by instinctual lust for Nizeke’s utter perfection.  
  
Nizeke allowed Angela to kiss her again, and then lowered Angela from her tip toes with a firm grip on her shoulder, chuckling softly.  
  
“Don’t ruin it now,” Nizeke teased, glancing down her body with an amused, aroused look. When those clear, cyan eyes rose to Angela’s face again, she smiled and Angela could have melted, she felt so molten inside. Nizeke nodded to the tod behind her. “Fareeha awaits.”  
  
Angela watched Nizeke as the vixen gracefully stepped back, fascinated even with the way she moved, but the vixen was right. Angela’s head turned back to Fareeha, and an even more pleasant feeling flooded her, enhancing the arousal that Nizeke and the other vixens had sparked. She crossed the few steps to the tod, swept up with the fluttering feeling, and took Fareeha into her arms to kiss. She felt the tod’s smile against the kiss and relished the grasp of those strong, muscled arms as they came around her in turn.  
  
Angela treated herself to a full, long moment with Fareeha, encouraged by her fellow vixens. She would have lingered longer, even taken Fareeha on the spot, but for a little voice that spouted, “Hey, you two have had enough practice this morning!”  
  
Smiling, Angela reluctantly pulled away from Fareeha to find Soeli giving them both a stern look from beside Ra. Angela knelt and held out her arms for the little one.  
  
“Come here, Soeli,” she called, and the kit left Ra’s side to run to her. The little one jumped at her, and she wrapped her arms around the kit warmly. In another moment, Soeli sniffled. Angela stroked the little one’s back gently. “Shh,” she hushed, “it’s okay, Soeli.”  
  
“I don’t want you to go,” Soeli confessed in a shaky voice, trembling a little. “What if there are more bad machines and bad men out there? I don’t want them to find you, Angela. They’ll hurt you again. They’ll...”  
  
Angela’s heart broke as Soeli struggled to speak through tears. Through the loss of her parents, the kit had been strong, not once lashing out at Angela for failing to save them, and instead resolving to be as good as brave as she can be when she grew up.  
  
Pulling back from the little kit, Angela lifted a hand to Soeli’s cheek, brushing away a few tears with her thumb.  
  
“We’ll come back, Soeli,” she promised the little kit, whose lip quivered as little yellow eyes searched Angela’s. “I’ll find my answers, and Fareeha and I will put a stop to these men and their machines, and then we’ll come back. I promise.”  
  
Tears gently rolled down Soeli’s cheeks.  
  
“You have to,” Soeli said, sad eyes pleading with Angela.  
  
“We will,” Angela vowed. “Soon as we can, Soeli, I promise. And we’ll make up for lost time okay?” she said, stroking the little one’s cheek gently. “Until then, you must watch over Ra and Ana for me and Fareeha, okay? The war-chief will need you while we’re gone. Can I count on you to help her? And Ra, too.”  
  
Wiping the tears with the back of a hand, Soeli nodded bravely, “Yeah,” she said, voice still cracked and choked up.  
  
“Good,” Angela said, stroking the kit’s hair affectionately. “Someone needs to look after them. It’s an important job, okay?”  
  
“Okay,” Soeli said with another sniffle. “I won’t let you down, Angela,” she promised, and Angela stroked the little one’s hair.  
  
“And I won’t, either,” she vowed. “We’ll be back for you, Soeli.”  
  
Soeli nodded, and Angela stood as the little one ran to Fareeha to hug the tod.  
  
“Angela,” Ana called out, nodding at the new weapons they got from Jesse. “Looks like you’ve got everything you need, but you’re forgetting this,” the war-chief said, the usually strict tone soft and tender. In one hand, Ana held a jar of blue pigment, the color matching the mark all the other foxes wore.  
  
Angela was stricken in that moment, overwhelmed with the meaning the mark and the small cup of blue pigment held. She was to be one of them: her family. She looked to her side and found Fareeha smiling at her, holding little Soeli in those strong arms.  
  
“Go on,” Fareeha encouraged with a gentle nod. “You should have had it a long time ago.”  
  
Angela turned back to Ana and stepped towards the war-chief, legs a bit weak.  
  
“Angela, you never should have been separated from us,” Ana told her, brushing back her hair from her face, “and you almost died to protect this tribe of ingrates despite it,” the war-chief said. "“Mark or no, you are a fox, and this instead becomes a question for you to answer: do you accept to be among us?”

With the Nora, she may never feel like she was part of the tribe, but with these foxes, there was no doubt in her mind.

"I would be honored," she said.

Smiling, Ana dipped a forefinger into the paint and lifted it to her face. With a very steady hand, the war-chief gently tapped at the skin at the upper corner of her left brow, marking her among the vixens. Angela didn’t breathe until Ana withdrew her hand and brought up the other to cup her cheek.  
  
Filled with a sense of belonging, Angela grabbed Ana - the war-chief, her war-chief - and hugged her tightly, hoping it conveyed even a small bit of her appreciation and love.  
  
She had found it, a whole she was part of, marked for all to see.  
  
Ana’s hand, having dropped from her face during the hug, now moved to her back and stroked her comfortingly.  
  
“Thank you,” Angela whispered.  
  
Ana pulled back and kissed the top of her head, much like she had done to Soeli, the undeniably motherly gesture nearly bringing her to tears.

As the foxes gathered around her, Angela smiled, having never felt so at peace and accepted in her life.

"We're not done," Ana told her, still holding her. "You and Fareeha still need your seeker marks."  
  
“Damn,” Frea said after a moment, “I want to go with you, Angela.”  
  
“Yes,” Lase echoed, nearly hissing it, “we should be with you, all of us. We can help.”  
  
Ris nodded as most of the vixens echoed the sentiment, but Ana stood tall in the midst of it, dismissing the notion.  
  
“We cannot,” she said soundly, glancing at Angela as she did so, “much as I want to, and I want to, so very badly, we are needed here. We may be at odds with the matriarchs, but we are still Nora, and the Nora are at risk more than ever before. Even if you do not care about defending the tribe,” she said, giving each of them a meaningful look, “the Sacred Lands are our home, and we need to defend it.”  
  
When some of the vixens seemed reluctant, Ana went on to say, “Just because we cannot accompany Angela does not mean that we’re not helping. Without us, the corrupted machines that had been littered around the Sacred Lands would have razed villages. If we’re to leave and the Eclipse returned, the Sacred Lands will be lost. Let’s make certain it won’t come to that, that Fareeha and Angela have a home to come back to.”  
  
“She’s right,” Viate said with a sigh, conceding to the war-chief’s words.  
  
Letly nodded sagely.  
  
“The war-chief speaks the truth,” she agreed, “however we feel about the matriarchs, the Nora have provided us a home away from persecution, which is more than most clans offer,” she said, and Angela remembered Zarya’s moving story about the tod’s harsh upbringing. “At the very least, we have that to be grateful for.”  
  
“Suppose you’re right,” Frea reluctantly agreed, and others expressed the same.  
  
“Are we sure Angela’s well enough, at least?” Viate asked after it was clear the decision had been made. “I don’t want to see her off unless she’s fully recovered.”  
  
“Why not see for ourselves?” Ana proposed when the sentiment was clearly shared among the vixens. She turned to Angela and Fareeha and said, “Corrupted machines were sighted on the way to the border. Hunt with us.”  
  
Angela agreed, relishing the notion of fighting alongside the vixens once more before leaving.  
  
Ana then went on to give her and Fareeha their seeker marks, the simple blue lines complimenting perfectly with their fox marks. They waited, then, for Reinhardt to return from his own hunt, so Angela could him her final goodbye. With his and the foxes’ help, she and Fareeha prepared for the long journey ahead, and then they set out to hunt the corrupted machines.

* * *

With their numbers more than halved, the corrupted longlegs began to break off from the foxes in hopes of escape.  
  
Fareeha, having anticipated it, waved out to the vixens, signaling them.  
  
Even though she couldn’t hear anything - her ears plugged to protect against the longlegs’ screeching - Angela understood as Fareeha, atop the sawtooth, galloped alongside and then past the longlegs. Angela jumped, dropping out of the tree where she had been shooting from, and pulled out her tripcaster instead. Laying lines back across the route the longlegs had just escaped from, she put away the weapon and retrieved her spear.  
  
Ahead, Fareeha cut in front of the escaping longlegs, making the machines skid to a halt, rather than face the tod and sawtooth in their injured state. The vixens, who had taken up position on the right at Ana’s signal, all began to shoot their electrified arrows and took out three more of the machines by striking the sparkers on their backs. Seconds later, the struck components overloaded, stunning the targeted machines and affected two others nearby. As the vixens closed it on the incapacitated machines, the last three, able longlegs retreated, sprinting back towards Angela.  
  
Together, they ran right into the trip wires she had set up. Their legs crumpled with the explosion of the wires, and Angela wasted no time dropping in to finish them off with her spear.  
  
As the battlefield went still, a few of the vixen archers in the trees searched the surrounding area for more machines, deftly leaping from tree to tree amongst the high branches. When they found nothing more, they pulled their earplugs out and motioned to the rest of the foxes that it was clear.  
  
Angela removed her earplugs and began searching the longleg remains for an intact, corrupted heart.  
  
“That sawtooth was very helpful, Fareeha,” Ana said, admiringly looking upon the machine that Fareeha had hopped off of to check and tend for injuries. “Is it possible for Angela to override more than one machine at a time?” she asked. “It would be an invaluable asset in a fight, especially if we have a whole pack of them.”  
  
Angela saw that the longlegs around her were too damaged to salvage. Standing, she apologetically shook her head as she made her way over to the mother and daughter.  
  
“I’m sorry, Ana,” she said, having heard the conversation, “I would override a pack of them for you if I could, but I think the overriden machines need to be in close proximity to the override component and my focus.”  
  
“That’s a shame,” Ana said regretfully.  
  
“It is…” Angela agreed, mulling the notion over, “but maybe… after we track down Torbjörn and figure out how the Eclipse communicate over long distances, I might be able to do the same with overriding the machines.”  
  
Ana looked at her in immense interest.  
  
“That mind of yours is certainly something to behold, Angela,” the war-chief said, looking proud of her. “I’m grateful Reinhardt didn’t try to stunt you.”  
  
“As you wouldn’t have, I’m sure,” Angela told the war-chief, smiling.  
  
“Angela, I found one,” Fareeha said, approaching them with a corrupted longleg’s heart in hand, which she held out in offering to Angela.  
  
“Perfect,” Angela praised, excitedly taking the heart from the tod. “Thank you, Fareeha,” she said, making the tod puff up with the attention.  
  
She proceeded to scan the heart with her focus as the rest of the vixens gathered around for goodbyes.  
  
“Take care of each other,” Letly said seriously in final parting, “we want to see you both safe and back home, soon as possible.”  
  
“Yes…” Ana echoed, getting a forlorn look in those usually sharp eyes as she gazed upon Fareeha. “Be careful out there.”  
  
The somber note didn’t pass Fareeha unnoticed, and with a bowed head, she addressed the entirety of the vixens.  
  
“I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. I wasn’t fair. Angela was right; I should have tried to talk to you like I talked to her the night of the festival. It would’ve saved a lot of trouble if I had just given you all a chance...” she said, shaking her head. “I’m sorry I never gave you that chance, because you deserved it.”  
  
“We weren’t faultless, either, Fareeha,” Lase said, surprising and delighting Angela, because she had been one of the most vocal vixens about Fareeha’s attitude to them. “And this isn’t the last time we’ll see you, so stop talking like it. Make it up to us when you get back.”  
  
“Yes,” Qira agreed, hugging Lase close. “Next time, when you come back.”  
  
“I will,” Fareeha promised them, and then finally turning to the war-chief with a bowed head, she said, “and Mama… I’m sorry for how difficult I’ve been. I never really gave you a chance, either, even believed that you saw me as the matriarchs did. I was so caught up in my own pain over it that I never saw yours. I’m really sorry, Mama.”  
  
Before she had even finished the last words of her apology, Ana stepped in close and took Fareeha into her arms. Fareeha held on to Ana instantly, melting into the embrace, and Ana reached out and grabbed Angela, dragging her into it as well.  
  
When Angela was pulled in close enough, Fareeha between her and Ana, she heard the soft, but sure rumble of war-chief’s purr. Fareeha, so moved by it, sniffled and buried her face in her mother’s neck. Angela smiled at the emotional tod, leaning in to give her a kiss on the cheek. Ana also smiled, watching them, and then kissed Fareeha’s head, murmuring lovingly to her daughter.  
  
“We’ll come back to you, Ana,” Angela vowed to the stricken mother. “I promise.”

* * *

The trip to Daytower was uneventful, with the foxes having swept the Sacred Lands clean of the corrupted machines. Angela and Fareeha made only a few stops, often to take down sawtooths for spare parts should their mount need repairs or replacements. The friendly machine was proving as useful in travel as it had with battle, for before sunset, they were at the Forsaken Village, the former Nora settlement closest to the borders.  
  
“Mama told me there were corrupted scrappers here,” Fareeha said, noticing she was staring at the broken down houses.  
  
Which one had been Reinhardt’s? Where did his wife take her last breath?  
  
“There was also a corruptor near Daytower,” Fareeha went on, and Angela rested her head on the tod’s solid back, focusing on the present. “The Carjans closed the fort, stayed hold up in there until the vixens took it down, and then praised the sun after that.”  
  
At Fareeha’s punctuating snort, Angela giggled and pressed a kiss to the tod’s scarred shoulder.  
  
“I wonder what the Carja think about the moon,” she said absently, distracted by the toned midsection within reach that she couldn’t help but touch. “They think the sun is masculine, does that mean the moon is feminine?”  
  
“Then what’s an eclipse? Sex?” Fareeha asked, already snickering. “And are the stars their children?”  
  
Angela giggled again, wrapping her arms around Fareeha’s waist and pressing herself closer to the tod. She smiled when Fareeha responded with a purr, the tod obviously proud that she had made her laugh.  
  
They passed the Forsaken Village, Angela looking forward instead of back, a peaceful silence between her and Fareeha. As their sawtooth mount scaled uphill, Angela continued to amuse herself with touching Fareeha’s body, the affectionate touches making the tod purr louder.  
  
“Hey, Angela,” Fareeha spoke up much later, when the green of the ground had turned to the white of snow as they scaled higher and higher, “what do you think of Horus?”  
  
“Horus?” Angela echoed, her wandering hands stopping.  
  
“Yeah, for her,” Fareeha said, patting their sawtooth mount. “Fits her, right?”  
  
“Her?” Angela asked, smiling.  
  
Fareeha huffed, aware she was being teased.  
  
“Yeah. Her. So, what do you think?”  
  
Angela kissed Fareeha’s shoulder again, her smile widening.  
  
“I like it,” she whispered, pulling the tod closer even though that was impossible. “I like Horus, too, but not as much as I like you.”

* * *

Daytower Gate was a massive stone structure, the sort Angela had never seen in the Sacred Lands. It spanned the width of the entire path, ensuring the only way through was its gate, and its great height provided cover and vantage for archers. Two guards, dressed in ornate plate and armed with pikes, whispered to themselves, a conversation heard easily by foxes.  
  
“That Nora pair. Exiles?”  
  
“Likely. When did the Nora start riding machines, though? And a sawtooth, at that?”  
  
“That is strange. I thought only the Banuk shamans do that sort of thing. Don’t think I’ve seen a Banuk actually riding a machine, though.”  
  
“Neither have I. Hey, that one there looks like one of those fox-women, the ones who took down that... what did they call it? A corruptor?”  
  
“She does. Think she’s a fox-woman, too? Or a fox-man?”  
  
“Can’t tell, they all look like women.”  
  
“Shame if she is.”  
  
Had it not been for Fareeha’s calming scent and the greater need to keep the tod in her arms, Angela would have scaled the stone walls and gouged out the guards’ eyes for even looking at Fareeha. That they dared to say it was a shame Fareeha was a tod made Angela growl.  
  
Of course they would think that. They were, after all, a tribe that just recently stopped killing tods at birth.  
  
Seeking the mark on Fareeha’s neck, Angela breathed in the tod’s scent, currently mixed with her own. She felt the tension leave her body when she exhaled, replaced with a drive to keep her unspoken promise to Ana that she would protect Fareeha.  
  
They passed a second gate, where a lone guard gawked at Horus, and then, finally, they came upon the actual fort, its main area filled with outlanders, merchants, and artisans, chattering and mingling. The guards gave a weary glance at Horus, but otherwise let them pass.  
  
All activity came to a halt when they entered, a whirl of whispers and gasps ringing from the Carjan and Oseram occupants. Angela tried her best to ignore all the new voices, but then a guard stepped forward, his armor more decorated than those of the others, and he spoke to them.  
  
“Excuse me, Nora?” he said, looking at Angela.  
  
“We’re just passing through,” she informed the man, who nodded and smiled slightly.  
  
“My name is Hecan, and I’m the commander of Daytower. Pardon me for assuming, but that mark by your eye…” he paused, indicating the corner of his left brow, “that means you are a fox, does it not? A vixen? And your partner here is a tod, if I’m not mistaken?”  
  
“That’s correct,” she affirmed, impressed.  
  
“The Sun Queen has made certain that I’m as well versed in Nora culture as I can possibly be,” Hecan declared, the pride clear in his voice. “It’s only right, since I’m stationed right at the Nora border. Though, I’m afraid I’m unfamiliar with the other mark you wear.”  
  
“They’re seeker marks,” Angela said. “It means we go anywhere in search of what we seek, and we seek the Oseram Torbjörn. He was part of the envoy invited to the festival.”  
  
Hecan’s face lit up in recognition.  
  
“Ah, yes, the stout fellow? He passed through with Zarya and the rest of the envoy three weeks ago, should be well and settled in his Meridian home by now with that big family of his. Is that where you’re headed, Seekers?”  
  
Angela nodded.  
  
“It is. Is that of any significance to you, Commander?” she asked, unwilling to reveal more about their mission.  
  
“It is, actually,” he said. “Could I trouble you to spare some time, Seekers? We have a situation that I think you can help with, and it involves someone who is like your partner.”  
  
_A tod in the fort?_ Angela thought, and though she and Fareeha couldn’t make eye contact, she knew they were thinking the same.  
  
“We’re listening,” she said, noting the relief on his face, “but first, we need a place for our mount.”

* * *

“We found them five days ago, trying to sneak into the Sacred Lands,” Hecan told them as he led them to the sleeping quarters in the fort. “We actually thought they were Nora at first, because they were wearing Nora leathers, but then that meant they were exiles, which could not be. The Nora would never exile a fox, much less a tod.”  
  
“What tribe are they from?” Angela asked, holding Fareeha’s hand as they walked.  
  
“They would not say,” Hecan said, “and we did not press. The woman, meek and quiet, seemed Utaru in nature, but the… I’m sorry, what is it you foxes call those like you but are not Nora?”  
  
“Certainly not fox-women or fox-men,” Fareeha muttered.  
  
“Ah, you overheard my men talking,” Hecan guessed, wincing. “Allow me to apologize on their behalf. I’ll have a word with them as soon as I can.”  
  
“The Nora tales about foxes can’t be completely true if foxes are born to other tribes,” Angela pointed out.  
  
“The matriarchs will argue their bloodlines can be traced back to the Nora, that they’re from exiles,” Fareeha said, “and by those words, that would make them foxes, wouldn’t it?”  
  
“I see,” Hecan mumbled, blinking. “Thank you for the insight, Seekers. But, yes, as for the tod, I couldn’t place her. She’s very friendly, almost as passive as the woman, even. They claim they were seeking a new home, and they wished to join the Nora, feeling they would be safest there given the Nora’s reverence of foxes. Carja and Nora relations are tentative, at best, so I could not give them the help they needed. I did, however, send word to the Sun Queen that we had a tod at the fort. She has sent word back that the pair are welcome in Meridian.”  
  
“Seems your queen is very determined to make the Carja a tribe for foxes as well as men and women,” Angela remarked, sharing a look with Fareeha. “Smart of her. It’ll gain the Nora’s favor.”  
  
“She is wise beyond her age,” Hecan agreed, nodding. “She’s already arranged for a home for them, all that’s needed is for them to travel to Meridian. There lies our problem, because they refuse to leave the fort. They fear for their safety, despite our assurances that they’ll be escorted by the best guards in Daytower. I’m considering requesting the Sun Queen to send Zarya here, but... I wonder, should you seekers be willing, if you could escort the pair to Meridian, since that is also your destination.”  
  
“That doesn’t sound unreasonable,” Angela remarked.  
  
“Horus can manage four riders,” Fareeha added.  
  
“Thank you, Seekers,” Hecan said, smiling. “I’ll make sure the Sun Queen is made aware of this deed. Let’s hope our guests will be receptive to the idea.”  
  
When they reached the end of the hallway, Hecan stopped at a closed door and knocked.  
  
“Emily, Lena, it’s Commander Hecan. I’m with two Nora foxes who wish to meet you.”  
  
“Two Nora foxes? Emily!” came a chipper voice from the other side. “Probably vixens, right? Hold on, let me try to smell them through the door.”  
  
“Lena…” came another voice as something thudded on the floor.  
  
“Oh. They can hear me, can’t they?”  
  
“Even I can hear you, Lena,” Hecan said, chuckling. “May we come in?”  
  
After some shuffling from the other side, the door finally opened, revealing a smiling redhead - the woman, Angela noted - and a sheepish-looking tod with yellow eyes and short brown hair that looked to have been haphazardly chopped off with a knife.  
  
“Hi!” the tod greeted, flashing a wide grin. “Ooh, this one’s a vixen, Emily! And, oh, a tod!” she exclaimed, approaching Fareeha and gawking at her. “Wow, you look really strong! Look at these muscles. Do Nora vixens like them? Oh, I’m Lena, by the way, and that there’s Emily.”  
  
“Angela,” Angela introduced herself, watching in amusement as Lena proceeded to squeeze Fareeha’s bicep, “and that’s Fareeha.”  
  
“Lena,” the woman, Emily, called out as she touched the excitable tod’s shoulder. “Maybe we should sit?”  
  
“Yes,” Hecan agreed, still smiling as he gestured at a nearby table with wooden chairs around it.  
  
They took their seats, Lena sitting next to Emily as Fareeha sat to Angela, while Hecan kept a respectable distance from both pairs. Angela let herself have a second look at Emily and Lena now that they were settled. Lena caught her attention first; the tod was skinny, not unhealthy, but she didn’t look like she had trained once in her life. Though there was the undeniably alluring scent of a tod, Angela found Lena’s build was not to her liking, much preferring Fareeha’s lean, muscled frame.  
  
Fareeha may have ended up looking like Lena, skinny and soft, had she not fought to be a brave, and Angela found herself admiring her tod even more.  
  
“Angela and Fareeha are bound for Meridian,” Hecan began, straight to the point, “and they’re willing to take you both with them, if you agree.”  
  
“Can’t they take us to the Sacred Lands instead?” Emily asked, frowning.  
  
“The Nora don’t take in outsiders,” Fareeha said, looking at Lena, “and I doubt they’ll make an exception for a fox. I’m sorry.”  
  
“I know they have a reputation for favoring our kind, but that doesn’t exempt us from their laws,” Angela added, sighing, “and their laws are very strict. I don’t know much about the Sun Queen myself, but I feel your best chance is accepting her generous offer to house you in Meridian, and Fareeha and I will be happy to take you there.”  
  
“Then yes,” Lena decided, surprising Hecan. “We’ll go with you.”  
  
Hecan stood, grinning now.  
  
“That’s wonderful. I’ll have supplies and provisions provided for the trip. Are you in any hurry, Seekers? It’ll be dark out soon, and will make for more dangerous travel. I urge you to wait for morning and spend the night at the fort. We’ll be happy to have you as guests at Daytower.”  
  
“I think that’s best,” Angela agreed after silently confirming it with Fareeha.  
  
“Excellent. These are the best quarters in the fort. Would you prefer your own space, or would either party mind sharing?” Hecan asked, regarding them hopefully.  
  
“Oh,” Emily mumbled, glancing at Angela nervously. “Well, if our Nora guests don’t mind…”  
  
“We don’t,” Angela said, looking back at Emily curiously, who quickly averted her eyes.  
  
Delighted with the response, Hecan bowed graciously.  
  
“I’ll have our chefs prepare your dinner. Thank you once again, Seekers.”  
  
Hecan left, and Angela, for Lena’s sake, waited for his footsteps to fade away before she spoke.  
  
“Will you two be honest with us now that he’s gone?” she asked, keeping her tone even and gentle to avoid spooking the skittish pair.  
  
Lena flinched, dropping her gaze to the ground. Emily grasped the tod’s hand and bravely met Angela’s eyes.  
  
“We’ll try,” the woman said.  
  
“You’re wearing Nora clothing. Where did you get it?” Angela asked, noticing that Lena flinched again.  
  
“From Nora exiles,” the woman answered. “We traded for them, if you’re wondering.”  
  
“What tribe are you part of?” Fareeha asked, and Angela noticed that Lena immediately relaxed, even managed to look up. It seemed best to let her tod ask the questions.  
  
“We… we can’t say,” Emily whispered, as though someone else may hear. “I’m… I was Utaru, but…” the woman trailed off, shaking her head. “We can’t say. We just want to get away, to be safe. We were hoping the Nora would accept us, since Lena is a tod.”  
  
“And protect you from your tribe,” Fareeha concluded, getting a nod from both. “Why are you running from your tribe? Does it have anything to do with Emily’s pregnancy?”  
  
Emily tensed, arms covering her still flat belly as though she was suddenly naked. By the woman’s scent, they knew at once she was pregnant, a secret they let her continue to keep from Commander Hecan.  
  
“Are the men of your tribe abusive?” Fareeha asked, looking at Lena. “Was she taken from the Utaru, and did a man from your tribe force himself on her? Did you help Emily escape from him?”  
  
Lena glanced at Emily, and then nodded.  
  
“Yes.”  
  
The one word answering all three questions, Angela had to suppress a growl. Emily - and Lena, especially - were already afraid of her for some reason, and it would do no good to show aggression, even if it wasn’t directed at them.  
  
“And they call the Nora savages,” Fareeha muttered, and the growl the tod let out didn’t frighten the pair, instead surprising them.  
  
_This tribe they fear to name,_ Angela wondered, _are their vixens like their men?_  
  
After that, she and Fareeha had no more questions to ask, at least none that would yield answers, and soon, Hecan returned with his chefs in tow, bringing with them the dinner he had promised.

* * *

Angela’s hand was already in Fareeha’s pants when she thought that, maybe, she should have asked for separate rooms. Across them, Emily and Lena were huddled together on the furthest bed, looking like scared, cornered prey.  
  
_They’re not Nora, and Emily’s not even a fox,_ Angela reminded herself, _it’s probably rude to fuck Fareeha right now._  
  
_Probably._  
  
“Are we bothering you?” she asked them, though her palm remained where it was. Sex with Fareeha before bed had become routine for her, and while she was polite enough to ask if Emily and Lena were uncomfortable, she had no intention to stop.  
  
Feeling Fareeha exhale, Angela gazed at the handsome tod under her. Fareeha stared back at her, red eyes almost black, the mark on her neck bleeding freely. When did she reopen the wound, she wondered as she dipped her head down to lick a trail of blood, delighted when Fareeha moaned and tilted her head in offering.  
  
Slipping her hand further down, Angela grasped her tod’s hardening cock and purred as she kissed the now clean mark. Fareeha gasped when she purred, hips lifting off the bed and cock swelling rapidly. She crooned praises at her tod, palming the growing length from base to tip until it was fully erect and throbbing with need.  
  
“We should get you out of these clothes before you make a mess of them,” she teased her tod, unhelpfully squeezing the hard cock in her hand.  
  
“Do… do you want Lena, too?”  
  
It took a moment for Angela to register the voice that wasn’t Fareeha’s, and even longer for her to tear her eyes away from the gorgeous, writhing tod. She turned to the direction of the new voice, some clarity returning to her mind when Emily’s anxious face came into focus.  
  
“No,” she rasped out, shaking her head, but the haze was quickly taking her over. “We don’t have a problem, then?” she asked, her struggle with her instincts making her squeeze Fareeha again, the tod’s moan tempting her to bite the mark.  
  
“We don’t,” Emily finally answered, voice barely a whisper, and behind her, Lena relaxed.  
  
Needing no further encouragement, Angela returned her attention to Fareeha and promptly began to undress her tod.

* * *

The next morning, Commander Hecan was seeing them off as his guards worked with Fareeha to strap in the supplies provided by Daytower. Lena and Emily helped, at ease with just Fareeha while Angela had been taken aside by Hecan.  
  
“Follow the main road,” he told her, indicating it on the map he had given her. “It will eventually take you south, to Meridian. Your machine should shorten the journey, but not even a sawtooth can make it to Meridian in a day. Likely you’ll be beyond Morning’s Watch before dark,” he said, pointing on the map where an outpost was marked. “Past Morning’s Watch is Lone Light, a Carjan town where you can spend the night, and further south still is Cut-Cliffs, an Oseram settlement that is more quarry than village, but it does have an inn. Should you stop at the villages, please present these papers to the governors.”  
  
Angela scanned the map with her focus, though she still kept the physical copy from Hecan. He then handed her the papers, and the first thing she noticed was the wax imprint in the shape of a sun on the pages,  
  
“It is a seal,” Hecan explained, having noticed her staring. “It proves the authenticity of the papers. You are, after all, undertaking a task in the name of Sun Queen Hana, and you should be treated as thus. The last of the papers are for the Sun Queen herself, as I have no doubt she’ll want to personally thank you and your partner for safely bringing Lena and Emily to Meridian.”  
  
“Thank you, Commander,” Angela said, accepting the papers and keeping them with the map.  
  
Hecan nodded, his back straightening.  
  
“Thank you as well, Seeker. I wish you the best with your own journey. Whatever your business with Torbjörn, I hope it will be settled peacefully.”  
  
“As do I,” Angela said, looking at the strange, new landscape that awaited them.  
  
Hecan took his leave, joining his guards to help them. Fareeha, seeing Hecan, excused herself from Lena and Emily to go to Angela.  
  
“Everything okay?” she asked, arms coming around Angela.  
  
“Yes,” Angela assured her tod. “Hecan gave us a map, and these papers we can show to their settlement leaders to prove we’re escorting Lena and Emily for the Sun Queen.”  
  
“Kind of like our marks,” Fareeha observed, nuzzling her neck and inhaling deeply.  
  
“It is, yes,” Angela agreed, reaching up to run her fingers through her tod’s hair. “Can we head out soon?”  
  
“Should be able to,” Fareeha said, purring at the touch. “They gave us a lot of supplies, but I’m not complaining.”  
  
Angela laughed, breathing in her tod’s marked scent and smiling.  
  
“Lena and Emily talked to me,” Fareeha went on. “They were worried about me, asked if you hurt me last night. Sounded like they thought you forced me to be with you last night.”  
  
“They’re afraid of me, because they’re afraid of the vixens of their tribe,” Angela remarked. “Going by what happened last night, seems that tribe’s vixens are no better than their men.”  
  
“Explains why they ran,” Fareeha said, pulling back to face her, “but strange how easily they agreed to have us escort them. My guess is, for as much as they’re afraid of you, they also believe you’ll protect them better than the Carjans would.”  
  
“Telling of their vixens,” Angela remarked, and Fareeha nodded.  
  
“Angela…” the tod trailed off, looking troubled, “maybe we should take them to the Sacred Lands. The matriarchs don’t have to know, and I’m sure Mama will find a place for them to live. The Sun Queen means well, but how safe will they really be?”  
  
Angela cupped Fareeha’s face, the tod reacting instantly and leaning into her hand.  
  
“I understand, Fareeha,” she told her tod, “Hecan said we’re likely to get an audience with the Sun Queen, and if you still feel uneasy after we meet her, we’ll take Lena and Emily to the Sacred Lands, okay?”  
  
Fareeha exhaled, looking relieved, and closed her eyes.  
  
“Okay. I just wish we could do more to help.”  
  
“Not much we can do when they won’t talk to us,” Angela reasoned, caressing her tod’s cheek, “and maybe they will, there’s time yet.”  
  
Fareeha nodded, and then nuzzled her hand. Feeling the tod’s gratitude, Angela leaned in for a kiss.  
  
“They’re probably done packing by now,” Fareeha said when the kiss finally ended, proven right by Lena’s excited yelling.  
  
“We’re done? Were done! That means I can hop on Horus now, right? Right!”  
  
“Let’s go before they leave without us,” Angela joked, taking Fareeha’s hand as they hurried over to Horus and their charges.

* * *

At Horus’ reins, Angela pulled the machine mount up to a halt as they rode into the northern Sundom. She turned her head, scanning the flat, craggy landscape that stretched out before them.  
  
“It’s so vast,” she commented, gazing out over the rocky peaks and flatlands in quiet awe, having never before beheld this type of beauty in the land. The red, flat expanse seemed to stretch forever, going on even further than her focus could detect. Everywhere she looked, the new landscape registered, both in her sight and in her focus, imprinting its likeness into the device as she continued to scan.  
  
“Not a lot of trees about,” Fareeha said after her own quiet moment of taking in the new world that faced them, “that may make hunting trickier.”  
  
Catching the tone, Angela glanced back, seeing an absolute spark in Fareeha’s red eyes.  
  
“Sounds like you’re looking forward to the challenge,” she noted, and the tod’s lips split into a wide, beautiful grin.  
  
Fareeha hugged her a little more snugly. Behind her tod, Lena and Emily took in their new surroundings, the pair silent in her presence, as they had been since the night before.  
  
_Fucking Fareeha in front of them probably didn’t help,_ she thought.  
  
Prompting Horus to press on, Angela remained alert, turning her head as they moved to afford her focus optimal scans, marking on the map everything from machine sites to ideal camping locations.  
  
They had only gone a short ways before a giant, flying machine registered in the distance, soaring high above them. Angela scanned it as well, craning her neck as it drew closer. A stormbird, she realized, remembering Hecan briefing her and Fareeha of the machines in the Sundom. Though the focus provided the new machines specs once she had scanned it, her eyes didn’t widen until it drew closer and she saw its enormous size up up close.  
  
“Whoa,” Fareeha murmured, echoing her astonishment as it flew over them without paying the four of them or Horus any mind. “Do you think we could override that?” her tod asked, twisting on Horus to watch the stormbird fly away.  
  
Angela giggled, amused by the tod’s enthusiasm.  
  
“What?” she playfully teased, “Are you looking to replace Horus already?”  
  
Fareeha’s head turned back quickly.  
  
“No!” the tod protested immediately, and as if afraid Horus would be upset, she pet the sawtooth soothingly. “I would never replace you,” she said to the machine, making Angela smile all the more. “Maybe we don’t have to override the stormbird, but maybe we could find a way to attach its wings to Horus,” she mused, and Angela was intrigued by the suggestion.  
  
“It’s possible… all the machines do have similarities, even with the corruptors, they’re just put together differently,” she said, thinking on it. “We’ll see, if we have time, Fareeha,” she told the tod, marking the stormbird’s location on her focus. “There’s probably a way.”  
  
“Okay!” Fareeha said, sounding delighted with her hopeful interest on it.  
  
They settled back into silence while Angela turned her head, alert and scanning for any other new types of machine or wildlife that they might come into contact with, but besides the stormbird, the land was barren for the time being.  
  
Finally leaning back into the comfortable tod behind her, enjoying that grip around her waist, Angela asked, “How are you two back there? Emily, Lena?”  
  
A quiet moment passed between the end of the question and an answer, but finally, Emily replied.  
  
“We’re okay,” the woman said softly, so quiet that Angela may not have heard over Horus’ heavy footfalls it if she wasn’t a fox, “comfortable enough.”  
  
Maybe having felt Emily and Lena adjusting in their seats over the ride, Fareeha spoke up.  
  
“I’m planning to make a saddle for Horus eventually,” the tod said, “that might make riding a little more comfortable. We’ll probably be in Meridian by the time I even get around to it, though.”  
  
“A saddle’s a great idea!” Lena exclaimed, much more at ease to converse with her fellow tod. “It’ll have saddlebags, too, right? Emily and I are quite the stitchers! We’d be happy to help you get started if we stop by a town,” she volunteered, seeming as excited as Fareeha had been about the idea. “We might even be able to help you finish it if you stay in Meridian long enough!”  
  
“That would be great,” Fareeha said, sharing Lena’s enthusiasm. “It’ll be something we can all do together! Angela’s really good at stitching, too. She made all of her own clothes and armor, you know.”  
  
“Oh…” Lena mumbled, surprised and confused. “I’m sorry, I didn’t…”  
  
“Your armor looks very nice, Angela,” Emily remarked when Lena trailed off, voice a little louder and clearer than before. “The white fits you.”  
  
“Thank you,” Angela said.  
  
Emily was no vixen, but there was no denying the protectiveness she was displaying over Lena, and the fox in Angela respected the woman for it.  
  
She drove Horus onward, still scanning the open land around them. It was strange, not being surrounded by woodland or trees, and though her focus’ scans covered a lot of ground and showed no threats within range, it made her wary to be so exposed. Horus was no doubt beneficial, but their mount made them a big target, and the complete lack of cover made her uneasy. They were in an unknown land after all, one that the Shadow Carja and the Eclipse felt they were entitled to over Sun Queen Hana and the Carja.  
  
It was as she thought these things that Angela heard a telltale whistle in the air. Too late, she recognized the sound of an arrow a fraction of a second before it struck her in the shoulder with such force, she was knocked forward. A mere second later, Fareeha was hit, the tod struck in the back.  
  
Emily and Lena managed to grab them, but couldn’t hold them up, the two of them toppling off Horus.  
  
Wincing as she hit the ground, Angela grabbed the arrow by its shaft and ripped it out. Muscles already starting to feel heavy, she crawled up to her hands and knees and dragged herself over to Fareeha, tearing the arrow out of the tod’s back.  
  
As Fareeha struggled to move, Angela brought the arrowheads to her nose, recognizing the scent of the paralytic. The arrows were meant to incapacitate, not kill. The archer was coming for them.  
  
Feeling heavier with every passing second, Angela fumbled for her satchel for the antidote, which she had ample supply of, having mixed it up beforehand in preparation, as Reinhardt had always taught her to be ready for anything. Though it was a simple task, she struggled just to get her shaking hand into the medicine bag, and before she could manage it, Emily and Lena both jumped off Horus, rushing over to them.  
  
Angela grimaced, already taxed, but willed herself to yell at the pair.  
  
“Back, get back! Take cover behind Horus!”  
  
Despite the warning, neither Emily nor Lena moved, their wide, frightened eyes staring past her, not at her.  
  
With too much effort, Angela rolled on her back, lifting her head to see a slender figure approaching, likely the archer. She was having trouble focusing through haze of the paralytic, for even her eyelids felt heavy now, but when the archer drew close enough, Angela caught the scent of a vixen.  
  
A vixen that was completely covered in blue paint, she saw now, and very little else.  
  
The vixen stood over them, gaze turning curious when she looked at Fareeha.  
  
“You are her pet,” the vixen remarked, seeming confused, even surprised. “Strange.” Those sharp eyes turned to Angela, and then to Horus. “Very strange,” she drawled, and then shook her head. “Fret not, huntress,” she finally said, speaking only to Angela. “You’ll have a fair chance to fight for your pet and your machine, once I’ve returned Lena and Emily.”  
  
The vixen left them then, approaching her petrified targets. Her back turned on them, Angela resumed the struggle of searching her medicine bag, blindly reaching with fingers that felt so weighed down.  
  
“Was it worth it, all the trouble you’ve caused?” the vixen asked Emily and Lena, and then nodded behind her, indicating Angela and Fareeha. “The lives you’ve involved? And for what, to live like this? Like prey, fearing your end may come at any moment? What a tale you must have spun, Emily, to take Lena away from us, and after we’ve treated you so well.”  
  
“B-but Amélie---” Lena started, immediately cut off when the vixen took Lena’s face in her hand, forcing the tod to look at her.  
  
“How quickly you’ve forgotten your place, pet,” the vixen said, the sharp tone making Lena flinch. “You see now that you don’t belong here. Out here, you will starve, you will die. It’s a lesson that needn’t be taught, especially to you.”  
  
Lena whined, the vixen’s grip on her jaw tightening.  
  
“What a disappointment you’ve become, pet.”  
  
As though struck by the words, Lena fell to her knees, clutching desperately at the vixen’s hand.  
  
“I’m sorry,” the tod whimpered. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
  
The vixen didn’t move, not even when Emily drew close, wielding Fareeha’s spear in her trembling hands.  
  
“I believe you’ve done enough, Emily,” the vixen said, still not bothering to look at the woman. “You mean to protect Lena from me when it’s you who has put her in danger. She ran, with you, for you, because of you. Do you want your child to grow up without her mother?”  
  
Emily’s already flimsy grip wavered. She dropped the weapon, head bowed in defeat like Lena.  
  
“A wise decision,” the vixen commended, nodding.  
  
The vixen motioned at the pair to stand, but then a flash of movement bolted up from the ground, Angela realizing it was Fareeha as her tod tackled the vixen to the ground.  
  
Considering that she struggled to even wrap her fingers around the antidote, Angela was impressed to see Fareeha roll on the ground with the vixen, trying to choke her, and by the look on the vixen’s face, she wasn’t the only one.  
  
Breaking out of the weakened tod’s hold, the vixen moved atop Fareeha and pinned her down, looking her over appraisingly.  
  
“Surprising that you can move at all, much less fight…” she mused, taking a moment to inhale Fareeha’s scent, eyebrows raising as she did. “Does your mistress enjoy breaking her pets?” she asked and then chuckled. “I can appreciate that.”  
  
Baring her teeth, Fareeha bucked and threw the vixen off. As her tod began to wrestle with the vixen, Angela finally managed to wrap her fingers around the antidote. It took every bit of concentrated effort in her body, but finally, she lifted it to her lips. She stuffed some into her mouth and swallowed it whole, unable to chew, still painfully helpless as she waited for the cure to take effect.  
  
Before her, Fareeha continued to fight a losing battle, and as her tod’s strength weakened, the vixen began to make a game of it, like a predator toying with its dying prey.  
  
Angela gritted her teeth as Fareeha succumbed to the poison, collapsing on the ground when she could fight it no more. Angela helplessly watched the vixen saddle her tod between long, bare legs.  
  
“You fight well for a pet,” the vixen praised, lifting a delicate finger to Fareeha’s chin to lift it. “What’s this? Your mistress has marked you?” she asked, seeming surprised and delighted before looking back up at Angela, lips twitching slyly.  
  
Easily restraining the weak, struggling tod beneath her, the vixen pushed up Fareeha’s chin, exposing the neck. She slithered over Fareeha’s body, pinning the growling tod, and moved a hungry mouth over Fareeha’s exposed neck. She tongued Fareeha’s neck, and then smiled, exposing sharp eyeteeth.  
  
The sight of it, the vixen looking right at her, taunting her, fangs touching the mark she had left on her tod, sent Angela into a wild rage.  
  
“No!” she roared, shoving herself up off the ground to leap at the vixen and tackle her away from Fareeha.  
  
They both pitched to the hard ground, but Angela got up first, and she grabbed the vixen from behind, trapping the vixen’s right arm in the iron hold. Her other hand went to the vixen’s chest, over her strong, beating heart. Angela fingers sunk deep into flesh, sharp nails first, and she felt the beating warmth of the vixen’s body as blood soaked her fingers.  
  
Angela’s fingers dug into the flesh, drawing blood as she reached for that heart. Her instincts demanded nothing less, spurring her on despite the poison still in her body.  
  
“Angela, don’t, please!”  
  
Barely recognizing the voice as Lena’s, Angela breathed deeply and went still, stopped from ripping out the vixen’s heart. She shut her eyes, snarling as she fought the urge to finish what she started, to do to the vixen what she deserved for daring to mark Fareeha.  
  
Lena called out to her again, pleading with her, and after a while, Angela exhaled and opened her eyes. Withdrawing her bloody hand, she shoved the vixen on the ground, and then used the same hand close around the vixen’s neck.  
  
“Move and I’ll kill you,” she growled, applying more than enough pressure to get her point across.  
  
The vixen, an eerie picture of calm, held up her hands in surrender.  
  
“You have won, impressively. Do with me what you will.”  
  
Angela scoffed, just barely stopping herself from tightening her grip on the vixen’s neck.  
  
“Just like that?”  
  
The vixen nodded, and even smiled.  
  
“Just like that. The Tenakth live and die by simple rules. My life is now yours.”  
  
Angela let a moment pass, then another and another, and the vixen remained slack and waiting under her.  
  
“Lena,” she called, her eyes not leaving the vixen’s. “Get my satchel and give Fareeha the antidote, it’s the green one. Emily, check on Horus, see if she was targeted, too.”  
  
As the pair went off to do as she had asked, there was finally a change in the vixen, but not the sort Angela had been expecting.  
  
“Are…” she sputtered when, along with the sound, she caught a scent, “are you purring? Are you aroused?”  
  
The vixen laughed, as though she didn’t have gaping wounds on her chest.  
  
“You won very impressively.”  
  
Emily returned, Horus behind her.  
  
“Horus is okay. She just didn’t fight, it seems,” the woman reported.  
  
Angela nodded, still holding the vixen’s gaze.  
  
“Is Fareeha okay, Lena?” she asked, wishing she could check on the tod herself.  
  
“I’m okay,” Fareeha said, groaning.  
  
At that, the vixen smiled.  
  
“You have a very good, very loyal pet.”  
  
Angela snarled, grip tightening further.  
  
“Fareeha is my partner, not my pet,” she snapped, and then let go of the vixen’s neck. “Lena, what are the chances she and the rest of your tribe will leave you alone if I let her go?”  
  
The vixen laughed, and unlike the last laugh, this one was to taunt.  
  
“Mercy is a sign of weakness.”  
  
“If you let her go, she’ll just keep on hunting us, keep on picking fights with you,” Lena said, worried eyes on the vixen. “If she wins, Emily and I go back to the Tenakth. They may kill her after she gives birth, depends on what Amélie tells them. You and Fareeha will be made part of the tribe, too. The vixens of the tribe will take Fareeha, whether she likes it or not.”  
  
Angela snarled, stopping only when Lena whimpered in fright. She gritted her teeth, weighing the options as she tried to rein her in temper.  
  
“Are there others like you hunting Lena and Emily?” she demanded of the vixen, who again smiled.  
  
“No. There was no need for any other. If I hadn’t mistaken your… partner, we’d already be on our way back to the Tenakth.”  
  
“She’s telling the truth,” Lena said. “Amélie is the Tenakth’s best hunter. She…” the tod trailed off, swallowing the rest of her words, and when Angela glanced back at the tod again, she could see the pleading in those eyes.  
  
As Fareeha stood, staggering to unsteady feet, Angela reached out for her tod and drew her close, taking in Fareeha’s scent. Seeing the vixen watching them, she spoke, her voice calm and even.  
  
“You’ve forfeited your life to me, and I will take it, but I won’t kill you. Your life belongs to me now, you belong to me, and you will do as I say, no questions or objections. You’re coming with us, and you’ll make certain that Lena and Emily make it to Meridian unharmed.”  
  
The vixen’s eyes, stark white, seemed to light up with her smile.  
  
“And so I shall,” she vowed.  
  
Still holding Fareeha close, Angela turned to Lena and Emily with narrowed eyes.  
  
“We’ll make camp before Morning’s Watch, and then you two will tell us everything.”  
  
Lena nodded, sinking back to her knees in gratitude.  
  
“We will,” she promised. “Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic is on a sort of hiatus after this, because one of us still needs to actually play and finish the game, so we can't move forward until then.


End file.
